Your philosophy on failure and success is on point. If success was a long thread, I consider failures a prerequisite at the beginning and along the line to be alternating multiple failures, then comes success and so forth. I don't believe in the concept of genius. People grow up in different environments and cultural backgrounds and have access to varying opportunities that define their self-belief. This belief can be either limiting or not. A great read I have had on this is topic

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Ericsson Anders.