If you've watched enough startup movies, you know the scene: a lone genius scribbling formulas on a whiteboard, eyes widening as everything clicks into place at once. It's dramatic. It's cinematic. And according to Meta Platforms Inc. (META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it's a harmful fantasy that stops talented people from ever getting started.

The Myth That Movies Keep Selling

Speaking at Harvard's 2017 commencement, Zuckerberg took aim at what he called a "dangerous lie" perpetuated by pop culture: the idea of a single eureka moment. He told graduates that "movies and pop culture get this all wrong," arguing that this myth leaves people feeling inadequate when their ideas don't arrive fully formed and discourages those with promising concepts from taking the first step.

The reality, Zuckerberg explained, is far messier. Real breakthroughs emerge from trial and error, not sudden genius. "Ideas don't come out fully formed," he said, but become clear only through continued work. If he had waited until he understood everything about connecting people globally before launching Facebook, he never would have started.

A Dorm Room Project Without a Master Plan

Zuckerberg recalled launching Facebook from his Harvard dorm room with modest ambitions: he just wanted to connect his classmates. He assumed some bigger company would eventually figure out how to link the entire world. The notion that his side project would evolve into a multitrillion-dollar social network connecting billions of people never crossed his mind at the time.

But starting small didn't mean thinking small forever. Zuckerberg pushed graduates to go beyond just finding personal purpose and instead build projects large enough to give other people purpose as well. Creating those kinds of movements, he warned, takes years, requires the confidence to act before the path is clear, and demands thick skin.

Silicon Valley's Chorus on Failure

Zuckerberg isn't alone in preaching the gospel of imperfect starts. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos has told shareholders that Amazon aims to be "the best place in the world to fail" and that failure and invention are "inseparable twins." In a separate interview, Bezos warned that "thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy" and argued that people routinely overestimate risk while underestimating opportunity. Investor Ray Dalio has praised Bezos's insistence on a "willingness to repeatedly fail" as essential to genuine innovation.

Bill Gates calls "avoid risk" the worst advice he ever received and says "failure" is a better teacher than success, especially early in a career. Warren Buffett, meanwhile, has counseled young investors to choose work and colleagues they truly care about, aligning ambition with long-term purpose rather than letting fear of missteps guide their decisions.

The common thread? None of these billionaires waited for a lightning bolt of clarity. They started messy, failed often, and figured it out along the way. Maybe that's the real story Hollywood should be telling.