It's easy to assume that the owners of successful products or businesses are very smart. It's also quite apparent that some really smart people aren't very rich. It's also easy to assume that something that appears to be popular has actually made the guy who invented it rich. Fact is, sometimes these statements are true, sometimes not. Why is this?
The simplest way to explain it is in this table:
Ideas are just a multiplier of execution
AWFUL IDEA = -1
WEAK IDEA = 1
SO-SO IDEA = 5
GOOD IDEA = 10
GREAT IDEA = 15
BRILLIANT IDEA = 20
NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
SO-SO- EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000
Basically, it all comes down to [amazon p="focus"] and [amazon p="marketing"].
In reality, success isn't an absolute thing nor is being rich. It reality if you feel successful, you are. If you feel rich, you are. If you don't, you're not.
Most people who do noteworthy things are candidates for being successful or rich. You might consider them rich or successful, but that doesn't mean they feel the same way. Often times, they feel burned out or stressed out. Regardless, they did something to become noteworthy. How?
Focus and Execution.
To better understand this, I recommend reading "The E-Myth Revisited".