As Warren Buffett famously said, he's so wealthy because he happens to be born into a society with a well-developed but modestly inefficient stock market, and that's the area he likes to obsess about. He reckons that less than 10% of historical humanity has had such a chance.

Would Bill Gates be anywhere near his earnings if his dad made him go to law school and he had a good time suing people? Would Carl Icahn just been a happy doctor if he wasn't so afraid of germs to drop out of medical school?