> With no experience, no college education, virtually no connections, and with the same casual outfit he had been wearing on the day he was taken into custody, Gardner gained a position in Dean Witter Reynolds’ stock brokerage training program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Gardner

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"Mr. Wall Street" Sideny Weinberg began as a janitor's assistant at Goldman Sachs and rose to CEO. He completed only Junior High school.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Weinberg

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There are countless other case studies I'm sure, which are all pleasing to read, but the only common threads you'll find are luck and meeting the right people at the right time. In spite of the two people's good intellect/skills, if the parameters were different in either of the above stories, things may have turned out very differently.

At the very least, its hard to become CEO of Goldman Sachs from being a janitor if Goldman Sachs doesn't exist.

Most self-made men, in short, have a lot of fortunate scaffolding when they get to the construction site where they are made.