Everybody knows some of the biggest entrepreneurs in recent history: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Pierre Omidyar, Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, but we often fail to give credit to those who have helped them.

There exists an aura of the sole programmer hacking away all hours of the day, or a visionary making key decisions in the clutch by him or herself.

Assuredly, there have been many instances when those who have risen to the top have done extraordinary tasks, but more often than not, more than just skill, they have had people who share in their dream.

We have a familiar word for this phenomena: networking.

Aside from the obvious helpers: family, friends, and teachers; there is often time a key person to the story that is often neglected when the founders go prime time.

Bill Gates had Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer, among others. Andy Bechtolsheim, the founder of Sun Microsystems, gave two guys $100,000 for their Backrub search engine. That would be Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google fame.

Even the Weebly guys, who I recently did a story on, received key help from an IST professor, as well as PSU alum and Xobni Co-founder Matt Brezina.

I just recently learned how powerful Penn State networking is. I just got off the phone with the Chairwoman of the Israeli Venture Capital Association — albeit I was writing an article for a major Silicon Valley online blog, and not doing business– all because of several PSU connections.

I didn’t use to think this way– I told my Dad I would never come to Penn State, although he would try to convince me that it was the right thing to do. In every place he has traveled around the world, he would always receive help because of the Penn State connection in places like Colombia, Nigeria, South Africa, Qatar and several other nations.

Before I was born, my Dad moved the family to State College to teach here at Penn State. Early October, I met with his first graduate student , who is now high up in the IST department. This man referred me to the above-referenced IST professor, who in turn referenced me to the Lion Launch Pad, where I recently applied, and also tipped me off to the Weebly story.

Writing for the Daily Collegian, I pitched the Weebly story to my editors–and through Dan Veltri, I interviewed Xobni’s Brezina, who recently connected me with editors at two major tech and venture capital blogs, one of which is VentureBeat.

This is the reason for the call spanning seven time zones.

Although I have many more goals than simply writing about other people’s technology, the network I have built in recent months is all due to my father, and the Penn State connection.

My dad used to attest that Penn State has the largest alumni network in the United States, and it is also happens to be a top-notch University.

This is why I applaud what Lion Launch Pad and Rob Shedd are trying to accomplish– use this immense valuable resource we have here at Penn State, and bring great minds together to provide a platform for entrepreneurship launches.

In the real world, there are no superheroes–but there are plenty of people who have and will help us along our creative journey.

Hand in hand with these helpers and mentors, only can we achieve greatness.