I would go a step further and say it's just another form of making the exception the rule. People will point to a handful that came up out of poverty and say "Look! They did it, everyone else could too but they are just lazy. It's their choice to live in poverty." That sort of thinking is thoroughly rejected in large segments of the population now. Well, it's not really a stretch at all IMHO to extend that to most things self-help and growth wise.