A year before his death, Steve Jobs sent himself an email titled "I do not..." What he wrote wasn't about Apple's next product launch or market strategy. Instead, the tech visionary penned a meditation on gratitude: "I grow little of the food I eat... I speak a language I did not invent... I am moved by music I did not create myself... I did not invent the transistor, the microprocessor, or most of the technology I work with. I love and admire my species, living and dead, and am totally dependent on them for my life and well being." Here was a man who revolutionized multiple industries—acknowledging that none of his achievements happened in isolation. This hits different when you're running a business. We get caught up in our own narratives. The deals we closed. The campaigns we built. The revenue we generated. But Jobs got something most of us miss: Every breakthrough builds on invisible foundations. The ABM framework I use? Based on research from people I'll never meet. The sales process that works? Borrowed from companies that shared their playbooks. The marketing attribution model? Built on tools created by teams I've never worked with. Even this post uses language and ideas that aren't originally mine. The most successful founders I work with understand this. They don't try to reinvent everything. They take what exists and make it work better for their situation. That's not copying. That's building. Time to build. Jobs created the iPhone by combining existing technologies in a new way. Your next business breakthrough probably won't come from inventing something completely new. It'll come from connecting dots that others haven't connected yet. The question isn't whether you're self-made. The question is how well you can see and use what's already there