Bob was wondering why this all happened to him. He knew that the chance he was able to get until now, was not solely from its own.
But just turning his triumph to the people around him was also not what he was thankful for. But he was sure thankful for the people around him as he admitted that it would have been never possible without them. What he was thinking of was about the real motivation it came from himself. The perfectionism he grasped.
Simply saying that it is his character was kind of not what he really wanted to say. The most powerful thing from where he inspired himself was books. That helped every single step to take where he had curiosity.