Solar and stellar winds are ubiquitous flows of charged particles (i.e., electrons, protons, and heavier ions) permeating the astral spheres1. Through these winds, stars lose angular momentum, slow down their rotation as they age, shape planetary systems, and affect the composition and the physical and chemical evolution of planetary atmospheres and, consequently, the habitability of these planets2,3. How the solar wind is generated at the source, heated, and accelerated, and what determines its variability, are long-standing fundamental questions. Here we argue that the physical mechanism that heats and drives the solar wind at its source is ubiquitous magnetic reconnection in the form of small-scale jetting activity4. Jetlets, like the solar wind and the heating of the coronal plasma, are ubiquitous regardless of the solar cycle phase. Each event arises out of small-scale reconnection of opposite polarity magnetic fields producing a short-lived jet of hot plasma and Alfvén waves into the corona. The discrete nature of these jetlet events leads to intermittent outflows from the corona, which homogenize as they propagate away from the Sun and form the solar wind. This discovery establishes the importance of small-scale magnetic reconnection in solar and stellar atmospheres in understanding ubiquitous phenomena such as coronal heating and solar wind acceleration.