Plenty of hard-working Senior VPs at hedge funds never become billionaires. Hedge funds themselves tend to rely on a good deal of luck plus skilled marketing. If Bezos had been working at DE Shaw during an economic downturn, would he have had the same future?

Was it "just" luck? Of course not. But I'd argue luck is the primary difference between being in the top 1% vs being in the top 0.001%

When you're talking "self made billionaire" I think you're picking from a select enough group that "very lucky a few times" is still within reason.

Nobody said anything about it being "just luck". It's a combination of both luck and skill. It's like a pro golfer getting a hole in one. Obviously there skill contributed a lot, but the fact that they're still rare means a fair amount of luck is involved.

There could be 1,000 people just as talented as Bezos, but if they aren't in the right place at the right time they just simply aren't going to accumulate over 100 billion dollars

The $245,000 loan from his parents in 1995 to help start Amazon begs to differ.

Everything is just luck. Genetics, upbringing, and environment all strongly influence skill and success. With different luck he could have been the youngest gang leader in the hood.