What is common amongst every Enlightened journey?

[Bluebird]

First a quick story!

When I was quite young, around 13, I recall watching a documentary that changed my life. It was a documentary about young entrepreneurs, their journey's and where they are at now, their pitfalls, etc. But there was something deeply profound I noticed in the documentary... Every single young entrepreneur mentioned they started by building websites for friends cheaply.

I decided that I would learn web development. 99% of all the money I've ever made was through this base of web development. It's taken me to where I am today, allowing me to run my business and live well.

I'm wondering if anyone has detected a theme like this amongst spiritually enlightened teachers. Is there something that they aren't even conscious of, that many others did, to begin their journey? 

Perhaps, perhaps not. Just interested to hear opinions. The one I've come up with is Suffer, but that doesn't seem particularly helpful  

This might be a useful step in kickstarting the journey more, taking the right first step that will pay off 1000x in the next 5 years.