Not all wall street firms end up success, many were bankrupt, but you won't hear the bankrupt story. The higher the leverage, the higher the bankruptcy risk. And for sure, real estate business has the highest leverage across industries IIRC. What I want to say is, you don't always need leverage. You can be wealthy from side hustle without borrowing any money. The key is reinvesting your excess income, not from debt.
Indeed mate, what we are only seeing in many stories are the successful event but what about the loser? not all of them are gainer there are plenty of losers as well because for someone to earn there must be someone needs to lose.
this is what OP did not understand as he was only looking to the bright story but did not look deep in the dark part.
But of course if you know what you are doing and with perfect timing , everything will go fine but not all of your trials will end up gain as surely there are also losses along the way.