To see the clear picture and get helpful answers, I suggest to put on the other side a list of unsuccessful investments. OP has mentioned gold, bitcoin and property investments, showed how $1000 turned into hundred thousands. I havent googled much, but offhand I can name Twitter purchase. Suppose you have invested in Twitter. During two last years the value of your investment has decreased. Found
list of unsuccessful investment. HP have bought Autonomy and face multimillion value loss of a company they have just purchased.
So OP, when asking why people make mistakes and did not invest on early stage, think about all the unsuccessful investments people made. Because I feel like ration of successful: unsuccessful early investments are greatly below 1.
Indeed, many investors are hesitant to invest until they see results, this might be due to their past experiences with unsuccessful investments. Only a few individuals are willing to take the risk, usually those who have the courage and were fortunate enough to invest early on.