[skj]

There was no implication that the Randian titans were inspired by Rand. Only the implication that they lived by her ideals.

That, of course, can happen before she actually articulates them.

[mindslight]

Only if you're talking about a narrow caricature of her ideas, and ignoring the context she was writing from - socially-based totalitarianism. Her focus of strong individualism would have manifested quite differently if she had been writing during that period of hierarchical totalitarianism.

There are many people who use what she said to justify their being assholes, but the same applies to any philosophy when it's taken for strict prescriptions.