Keep the grit and drop the myth. Nobody climbs an empty mountain.
Successful people made it alone, on pure grit, with no help, no luck and no systems.
Discipline compounds, and plenty of people start with little and finish with a lot. Denying that people make choices is as false as denying their circumstances. What the myth erases is everything under the hustle.
Roads, power, water, broadband, GPS and shipping lanes. Every product that "ships" rides on someone else’s asphalt.
Courts that enforce contracts, a currency that holds value, public schools, libraries and vaccines.
Teachers, early customers, the first hire, the spouse who covered rent and the mentor who made one call.
Being born in the right decade and country, in good health, just as the tools got cheap.
The garage sat on zoned land, in a country with venture capital, patent law and a power grid.
They learned from libraries, open source, YouTube and cheap computers.
Customers paid, early staff took risks and someone covered the bills.
Health, brain wiring, a stable childhood and random breaks vary wildly from person to person.
Credit the teachers, the partner who kept the lights on and the public systems that made the market possible. Then build the next thing, and leave the ladder where you found it. People who admit there was a ladder still climbed every rung.
Rewritten from the original No Sacred Cows post for the LeonLink blog.
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