The missing comparison group
For every company that recovered from a collapse, many did not. For every rejected manuscript that became a phenomenon, thousands remained rejected. Studying only the survivor exaggerates how visible success was.
A responsible scenario names what could have gone wrong and avoids presenting the winner as a reusable formula.
A simple check
Ask what else looked similar at the time. If the page cannot answer, treat the lesson as a story about one outcome, not a rule for the future.