I feel you, and I suspect that's a typical experience for someone with smarts, ambitions, and dreams but who never made it for one reason or other. This is a f

I feel you, and I suspect that's a typical experience for someone with smarts, ambitions, and dreams but who never made it for one reason or other. This is a feeling I know very well. This sinking feeling you get when nothing clicks into place and you struggle just to exist. Your peers' efforts often seem like glamorous rocketships taking off to great fanfare as they pass you by with ease. The self-inflicted pep talk about overcoming adversity and just sticking with it until you make it, when it's already plain to see for your friends and acquaintances that you're going nowhere. The truth is, this is normal. It may be your fault, it may be bad luck, you'll likely never know. The answer "try again, harder, try something different" seems trite and besides the point, but it's still the correct answer in my opinion. Life is an exploratory process for most people. I think the question "why did I never..?" is the result of expectations that do not match normal human lives. Especially when comparing yourself to the likes of Elon Musk and Bill Gates, you need to realize that these are literally one-in-a-billion lives. While they may be especially gifted individuals, please do not discount the immensity of their luck and fortune. Literally every single thing in their existence conspired to get them where they are today. When you read accounts or biographies of people like these, I invite you to pay special attention to casual references about what other celebrities they were connected to from an early age. All those weird "oh yeah, Neil Young usually dropped by our house every weekend for a jam session" moments. However, I allege this is completely unconnected to being good at something. Being good at something is a product of effort and ability. Especially in technical and knowledge areas, there are very few gate keepers preventing you from getting good. There will probably be gatekeepers preventing you from practicing that skill, but then again, getting good is only ever the beginning of a journey.