Sometimes the average joe can taste certain components of that secret sauce, because they're brilliant and hard-working, and was at the right time and place. But it's a very rare occurrence.
VC does not only offer money but also connections. Even more so does YC and their startup school. If that's not enough, a unicorn is waiting to combine kickstarter.com and a social network to allow people to monetize their connections.
The limiting factor is the willingness to give up the comfort of a 9-5 job. In a world of working spouses, one partner can always risk their career, especially when the children have grown up a bit.
Steve Jobs was a master of this. The first car itself was heavily marketed before release. You have to make people believe that their life will be improved by this thing. Failure to do so, even when you genuinely believe it can improve lives, will leave you in the dust while someone else eventually comes along with a nicer story.
Of course, if you don't even believe in your hypothetical rubbish product it's hard to make that storytelling believable. Even more so when you've become so deluded in your own thing that you can't tell what impact it does have.
I used Linux as my main desktop OS for like 15 years. One day someone paid me to write some Mac software for them. I did the project on a $150 ancient mac from a second hand store, and partially on Linux.
When the project ended I bought a new macbook when i got paid because i thought "ok, there's money in doing mac stuff, i better have current hardware". Linux was still my main desktop OS.
2 years later I switched my desktop to Mac OS too because after using it, it was simply far less annoying than either alternative.
So when you see people talking about the reality distortion field and why pay extra for Macs... take it with a grain of salt. It's likely they just looked at prices and guessed it's not worth it, maybe thought about induced want. So was I before I got paid to use one :)