What I liked most about this post: not so much the answers, but the fact that the answers were all so different...further emphasizing that there rarely is one right answer, but many possibilities and that you have to find your own.
I also read the book "Connect the Dots" 2 years back. That tells the founding stories of 20-25 founders. But all those stories are from India and are about general businesses.
It is so inspiring to read success stories of other people and you also learn the way they think about the problems and the way they tackle it.
Great read. Thank you, OP.