That was a wonderful read. Makes you wonder how many stories like these are out there. A lot of fascinating life stories we'll never know.

Agreed. There's a lot of folks that get very little credit, because they don't have the credentials required by "gatekeepers," or are pretty bad at self-promotion (or both).

People who really enjoy their work, may not care about whether or not they get much credit, don't really care that much about money, and consider self-promotion to be a waste of time, and often, arrogant.

If you start at the bottom, and shoehorn your way in, you get used to keeping your head down, and not pissing off the gatekeepers. Often, helping them to look good, is how you get to play with The Fun Toys.