majority of people who were successful today started from personal skill or self development, after which before they started investments.
Some people were lucky enough to be born into wealth, as their family had already made all the investments they would have needed to make in life now, they had just been born to come and enjoy, talking about people born into huge trust funds. Such persons do not need any form of personal skill or self-development. Some of these persons are so lucky that they do not even need any skill in financial management to keep the wealth because the money is so much that they cannot spend it in one lifetime, so yes without direct investment there could still be some wealthy individuals.
This is the reason why people say that life isn't balanced, some are born into wealth but others are born into poverty. If you place two piece of gold in the same place one in it's refined form and the other in it's raw form, they are still the same but one looks black and unattractive but when it goes through the whole refining process it becomes like the other, what I'm trying to say in essence is that some people would have to struggle to get the best