For a very long time, pondering life in all of its aspects has been what separates humans from the animals. We are gifted with a mind that constantly asks why.
In reading philosophical works, there is usually something familiar that the average person can understand. In my opinion, if people can understand a philosophical text, then people have the ability to be a philosopher. But what I notice what the well recognized philosophers have that the average person doesn't is not necessarily immense book smarts (though that does help), it's the ability to communicate simply and creatively about the minutia of life that slip through the cracks of our awareness.
This seemingly magical way of communicating is very left-brained, whereas the right-brained person might get jumbled up in analyzing their thoughts and what they're trying to express does not come out genuine and palatable to the recipient, but the right-brained person can write the shit out of a book about the history of philosophy.
Philosophy wears a lot of hats. Philosophy can make an alternative to rigid religions that don't speak to most people, mainly due to philosophy's constant analysis on morality. Before psychiatry, philosopher would explain the inner workings of the human mind. Even most psychiatrists revert back to philosophical text in their studies. Philosophy has contributed to art, science, politics, health and many more critical of human life.
All of this doesn't mean that all philosophy is good, there are some ugly things that come up, but not everything in life is pretty. Matter of fact, many philosophers have lead a pretty sinful life and were not angels but they constantly thought about the world and how it could be better or more manageable (if that's a good thing).