Their ability to do it may not have been a function of having money and connections, but having the money and connections to get it noticed, promoted and funded while not having to worry about starving or becoming homeless certainly helped. Stick a teenaged Zuckerberg in a public high school and obscure state college in Arkansas instead of Exeter and Harvard and he doesn’t get any dumber, but I’d bet real money that he doesn’t move as far or as fast. Steve Jobs are few and far between.