For the original post (OP): Didn't see any mention of market. Hard work, youth, talent, dreams, obsession, dedication, novelty, risk taking, and an available

For the original post (OP): Didn't see any mention of market. Hard work, youth, talent, dreams, obsession, dedication, novelty, risk taking, and an available empty garage -- these don't mean that there is or will be a market. No market, no successful company. As I read the OP, all or nearly all the successes had two things in common but not mentioned: (1) There was a market or nearly so; i.e., there was a nascent market. Plenty of people wanted the product or soon would after seeing it. (2) Not only was there at least a nascent market, due to various external circumstances, that market was growing quickly. Exercise: Ford cars? NYC had lots of horses and, thus, some very dirty streets. Cars didn't poop. Out in the country, a Model T was a better way to get to the retail stores in the nearest town than horse power. "External circumstances:" The oil industry was ready to supply gasoline and lubrication. The oil industry? The steamship Titanic was powered by oil. Wars, which wanted motor powered vehicles. Google? The Internet was exploding in bytes per second, users, uses, revenue, .... For many parts, especially social media, and as a whole, the Internet had a gravitational effect, i.e., the bigger it became, the faster it grew in, e.g., number of new users, revenue, ..., per month. So, quickly there became a need for Internet (Web) search, and Google grew. Facebook? As in the movie The Social Network, the small start of Hot or Not at Harvard spread quickly among universities and then, as it became social with the gravitational effect, had explosively rapid growth and, thus, both contributed to and benefited from the gravitational effect in general of the Web, Internet, microprocessor based computing, etc. Boeing? From cars, gasoline engine technology to power the airplanes. Wars for a market. Planes that could take off and land on water -- the planes didn't need airports and provided a faster way to cross oceans. So, in general: The economy moves along and creates a new need, i.e., a nascent market. Some likely new circumstances make it possible to meet this need, make the nascent market real. Then more circumstances make the market grow quickly. Timed just right, not too early, not too late, sometimes even a garage sized startup can meet the need and grow quickly.