It's a lot easier when you have a strong brand (corporate and personal). It's not so easy when you don't. Granted, they had no brand when they started (which was in a different climate than the climate facing startups today), but I think they've forgotten what it's like to be brandless, moneyless, etc.
If they want to prove their constant mantra of "anyone can do it!," then they should try this: Start a new company with a new company name, use aliases for their own names, live on ramen noodles for eight months (or many more), and see if they can repeat their success. If they can do it, then I'll be the first to sing their praises.
They've created exactly one successful company (a huge achievement to be sure). However, that doesn't qualify them to spread general wisdom about how anyone can do the same.
I'm not saying that their ideas for creating products people love are bad or wrong. They're actually quite good (and perhaps even intuitive to anyone who sits down and really thinks about it instead of just wanting to read about it). But one can't extrapolate broad patterns from a single macro datapoint.
Of course anyone is free to say whatever they want and I'm not suggesting that they or anyone else should stop expressing their opinions -- opinions are what make the Internet great. :-)
They've created exactly one successful company (a huge achievement to be sure). However, that doesn't qualify them to spread general wisdom about how anyone can do the same.
So... who is qualified?
Steve Jobs, maybe. But even Steve can't meet your crazy criterion: He's not dumb enough to have run NeXT and Pixar under an alias. He used his own name. Because he had invested a lot of time in that name and it remains one of his biggest assets.
And because it's probably impossible for Steve Jobs to run away from his name. And because, even if he changed his name and got plastic surgery, everyone would know it was a Steve Jobs company. I'm told that working for Steve Jobs is a really unmistakable experience. His style sticks out from a mile away.
Business isn't a science. All you get is anecdotes. You have to do what everyone else in Silicon Valley does: look at what Fairchild or Hewlett-Packard or Apple or Google did, and try to generalize. You might accidentally overgeneralize. Try to survive anyway.
If they want to prove their constant mantra of "anyone can do it!," then they should try this: Start a new company with a new company name, use aliases for their own names, live on ramen noodles for eight months (or many more), and see if they can repeat their success. If they can do it, then I'll be the first to sing their praises.
They've created exactly one successful company (a huge achievement to be sure). However, that doesn't qualify them to spread general wisdom about how anyone can do the same.
I'm not saying that their ideas for creating products people love are bad or wrong. They're actually quite good (and perhaps even intuitive to anyone who sits down and really thinks about it instead of just wanting to read about it). But one can't extrapolate broad patterns from a single macro datapoint.
Of course anyone is free to say whatever they want and I'm not suggesting that they or anyone else should stop expressing their opinions -- opinions are what make the Internet great. :-)