I didn’t say they need to be outlier wealthy, I’m disagreeing with the assertion that it just takes focus and grit to be successful. I agree with the initial comment that it has more to do with how many chances you get to take, and being able to take chances throughout your 20’s is a relatively rare and privileged opportunity. Most people need to find gainful employment immediately after college, they can’t take 5-10 years making no money on long shot bets.

Where are you getting the figure that there are 10’s of millions of college grads in their 20’s with no debt? There are only 2 million undergraduate grads in the US every year. I think you’re probably off by a couple orders of magnitude.

>> Why did they not succeed if that is what it takes?

short answer: it's might be necessary but not sufficient.

Alex Honnold, the rock climber with some pretty spectacular solo / speed ascents was asked why no-one else has free soloed El Cap, replied "it's hard." he spent a lot of time (years) building up to it and finishing other routes, and no one else has taken these first steps yet. He goes on that they may have the talent or disposition, but not the motivation or an experience that pushes them in another direction. His perspective (similar to general outlier success) is others will do it but it takes a bunch of things all coming together, including luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDTg4P9ZdP4

Contacts.

Bill Gates mother worked with IBM CEO. Without her maybe IBM would choose other company than Microsoft.

And Bill Gates father was in banking and was a millionaire

And he had access to a computer terminal at his high school in 1968.

Was he in banking? For some reason I was under the impression he was a lawyer and partner in a major Seattle law firm.