This is true, though I suspect success also comes from knowing which lessons to take from other companies and when to apply them to your project/business. A lot

This is true, though I suspect success also comes from knowing which lessons to take from other companies and when to apply them to your project/business. A lot of design decisions that work for Amazon won't work for a company with about 1000 times less customers, resources and manpower. An awful lot of startups also fail because they copy the big guys without realising that they're nowhere near as successful just yet and that what works for a large site/business and what works for a small one aren't necessarily the same thing. It's certainly the cause for a lot of overengineering and early complexity.