Not really. Following the crowd will not make you "real" successful. The crowd decides the trend, they also decide what to discard. The untapped potential that you're talking to, is mostly ignored by the crowd as their focus is only on the trend.
We cannot imitate the success that other people have achieved, because in going through every process of success we certainly face different challenges from other people and each person has their own way of solving the problems they face.
The idea needed should be unique, reading the needs and the flow of the crowd is required when starting a business. Like for example, in your city, everyone opens a convenience store but you observe that the crowd needs a grocery store, so you open one. You gain the crowd as you provide their needs and give the solution for what they are looking for.
You are right, in building a business we have to have an interesting idea to make people interested in the business we are creating so that the business we are running can develop well.