Id (as a team) shipped literally hundreds of times before even becoming Id. For one example: http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,817/ http

Id (as a team) shipped literally hundreds of times before even becoming Id. For one example: http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,817/ http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,81... In general, I find that a close inspection of these success stories only uncovers a hidden backstory where, in fact, the protagonists are developing "muscle memory." And this doesn't necessarily mean that they were building a startup, were the best in their field, or even went through the commercial marketplace! It means only that they accumulated the right mix of skills and experience to see - and then reach - success. Clearly Zuckerberg was, at the bare minimum, used to whipping up CRUD-style web sites - and had even started taking on contract work - before he decided to start on Facebook. He didn't wake up one day, say "social networks, what a great idea," and learn PHP and MySQL all at once. He arrived at a position where it was natural to work on one as an extrapolation from his existing experience, an incremental leap out of the comfort zone. Just "doing" is not equivalent; lots of people "do" every day, but don't grow or challenge themselves.