Outside of a few very highly specialized fields, I don't know anyone who does that successfully who didn't first get their start and build their network in the valley.

EDIT: To be clear, I do know people that have "done their time" then left and pulled in really nice consulting rates working remotely from rural / flyover america or overseas, albeit often with a lot of travel to customer sites.

By argument above, you'd still expect to make significantly more in the Bay Area.