Ed Shearing
Nepotism. There's some story I heard about how he coach surfed in California until he got a contract, and I figured he must have SOME talent, then found out he was staying on Jamie Foxx's couch, so clearly some he knew someone...
Except unfortunately my 30 second Wikipedia fact check shows he didn't. He met Foxx because he was invited to be a guess on Foxx's show and must have made a good impression. He did make seemingly the hardway; he started out as a working musician working with other musicians and worked his way up. Didn't hurt that he got a positive review from Elton John early on, but the guy apparently has something.
Damn. I thought I figured it out...
Small correction, only discovered when I moved across the country: there are two factories producing Girl Scout Cookies -- and the recipes have overlap, but each production company has a few unique ones. So sometimes I have to order from my niece rather than my neighbor.
Some of them are the same everywhere, though.