Because most people are unlucky hedonistic lazy dumbasses. About 1% of the world is smart, and of them, maybe half are actually motivated. Then you have to be lucky - lucky enough to be born into at least a middle class First World family, lucky enough that the patterns you spot have a practical business application, lucky enough to actually get first to market ahead of the other three smart guys with the same idea. Then you have to have the foresight to dedicate everything to the business instead of blowing the last round of VC money on nightclub bottle service. Then you have to be lucky again and the bet pays off. And so on, and so on.

Soon you're down to 400 names and you have the Forbes 400.

Not that the people who stumble a few steps down the ladder are too bad off. They're your MIT grads turned hotshot hedge fund traders who retire at 30 with a cool $20 million nest egg. They're the Facebook software engineer who comes into work at 10AM and does what he wants to because he's sitting on $5 million worth of stock options. Keep stepping down the ladder and you get to your workaday lawyers and doctors in Wichita, KS. Still not that bad off. Keep stepping down - soon you're down to the everyday shlub with a GED and an Associate's Degree who works two part-time jobs. That's 99% of the population. They're so far down they can't even see more than one or two rungs up the ladder. To them the lawyer in Wichita is "rich." They're the evil 1%. When you read that the top 1% earns 19% of income it seems disproportionate. How could they possibly earn it. Then you imagine how dumb the average working stiff is. Most of the value-added in our economy comes trickling down the ladder.

There is a lot of dumb luck involved. Look at Facebook and MySpace for example. They are just about the same but users like Facebook better and its worth billions while MySpace is almost worthless.

Hard work, putting profits back into the business, and common sense.

A little luck never hurts

high IQ's and it's just the way their brains are wired

They learned as they grew

They dedicate their whole lives to the business NOTHING ELSE thats all they do....thats how they do it...

How do wealthy entrepreneurs like Jack Ma or Bill Gates know what to do to start a business and get so many customers? Many of them had no experience at this but did it anyway. And why are the vast majority of us just working stiffs who do not have a clue of how to emulate their success?