Another thing worth adding is that the conventional wisdom of copying what successful people do ignores the glaring facts:
1. 'Successful' people do things differently to one another and this applies to domaining as much as anything else.
2. Circumstances matter. Spending what money / time you have at auctions because a successful domainer wins top tier names might not be sustainable if you donโt have their level of bankroll, risk tolerance or time flexibility.
In copycatting a successful person, your choices might negatively impact/infringe on other areas of your life. This is why starting small, and with modest, realistic expectations is good advice.
If (for example) being as rich as a software entrepreneur meant studying hard, going to a good Uni, then spending every spare hour coding on that big idea, there'd be far more millionaires/billionaires, (or none if everyone did the same thing).
As they say, if it were easy, everyone would be doing it.