Few paths go straight from a to b without a misstep.
This. “It's not what you know its who you know.” Though often the people who give that advice privately are the most invested in maintaining the illusion of meritocracy publicly.
[X] "The trick is to have parents",
[ ] who are alive,
[ ] "who aren't homeless",
[ ] who have housing that is safe and functional,
[ ] who have room for you not already occupied by other family members in greater need,
[ ] who "had a sofa",
[ ] or if they're dead, at least left you with enough money as an equivalent
(Also, you forgot people whose parents are able-but-unwilling. This also sometimes makes some things harder than they would be, compared to, say, being given fistfulls of cash each weekend by your rich parents who have a sofa AND a bed.)
To the original post, I generally agree. There are some fundamental lessons about business you can learn, and if you follow them, have a better chance of success. But the magnitude of that success largely comes down to luck. There's plenty of thought leaders out there that just happened to join the right company at the right time. Much of their success is "beta" rather than "alpha", but they are treated like they have unique insight to drive amazing outcomes.
Maybe at least one of their parents had a sofa.
The trick is to have parents who aren't homeless.