Except you make those ideas sound easy to execute. How am I supposed to get a CEO's attention and trust to invest in my startup with just email?
There are very few successful startups that came out of nowhere through grind and effort - at least not the fast impact kind.
Being in the Valley and networking hard is one way to get yourself some 'zen' if you don't have Ivy League 'cred' and an influential network. A lot of those folks spent years at Google et. al. which gave them 'cred' and network.
A lot of kids who get into Ivy League have been working pretty hard for a long time. Some of them are learning to be 'players' by the time the are 13, which is amazing and sad at the same time. So - they've been working at it for quite some time.
For most of us, we have to play the regular long game.