I'm in a position where I feel stuck. I have so many projects that people tell me I can "make a lot of money" off of them. Many of these are just things I've made because I couldn't easily find something to do what I wanted and I was able to just put it together myself. I already know I lack marketing and maybe even some social acumen and it could be just as simple as that. Or it could be that these things are so far away from being actually sellable that I'm overhyping myself for no reason. In terms of experience I used to work at FAANG, a game company, and in a couple other industries, so I have a wide breadth of experience in my field. I've also been a hobbyist developer since I was a teenager and I've never stopped really making things.
I know I have several shortcomings in real life that probably affect my ability to follow through but it could also just be poor habits? I'm not really sure. My brothers have worked directly under a billionaire before and I remember them talking to him and it seemed like he was exceptionally good at reading people and telling them things they needed to hear. This is kind of what I'm looking for I suppose. I will ask them to see if it's possible for me to talk to that guy but this was 10 years ago and he was 70 at the time so I'm honestly not even sure he's still alive now. Moreso than a therapist or a coach, I feel like the right person to get this kind of conversation with would be a well-off CEO.
Thanks for reading.
"Roughly 4% to as high as 12% of CEOs exhibit psychopathic traits, according to some expert estimates, many times more than the 1% rate found in the general population and more in line with the 15% rate found in prisons."
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackmccullough/2019/12/09/the-p...
The skilled CEOs I know are all exceptionally well-attuned to the problem space that their product solves, and their own company's place in that space (usually including internal company dynamics). Yes, from an employee's perspective, the CEO is pretty magical -- they usually have a better 'big-picture' view of the task you are trying to accomplish than you do, and they can give you the right context, validation, resources etc. to totally turn your work life around.
However, this is usually limited to the problem-space and the company itself. If you're in the same problem-space or dealing with similar company problems then a conversation can be quite valuable. But it doesn't sound like that's what you're looking for so much as inspiration.
You might get that from talking to a CEO. They can tell you the situation and circumstances that set them on their particular path, and maybe you can extrapolate nuggets of wisdom out of that. But they won't be able to figure out the path that's right for you. They're not oracles or mystics, just people with the right intersection of skills deeply specialized in the right cross-section of the market.
This part stood out to me. I think it's important to see that almost all successful CEOs (or founders, as it seems closer to what you wanted) have gotten into their position out of mostly luck. I don't mean this in a disparaging way and I am definitely not implying that they haven't worked their assess off to get there. But the reality is that there are a lot of hard working people, with sellable ideas, with experience, knowledge, resources... and most end up failing. And that's because there's a lot of luck in having the right idea at the right time (e.g., Jeff Bezos wouldn't be in the position he's in had he been born 20 years later or 20 years sooner) and finding the right people (customers, employees, relationships) at the right times too.
I think assuming that there's a massive amount of luck at play will help you a lot if you want to get those projects off the ground. First, from a personal, mental perspective: it's not necessarily that you're failing or doing things wrong or are not capable, but that it's a hard process and a lottery in many ways. I think that helps relieve some pressure and mental stress.
The second is that, knowing how much of it is luck, you can be more critical about the "advice" you receive. Most founders and CEOs will tell you the things that they think worked for them, but they might not be reproducible or, as i_dont_know says, might not even apply to a different problem-space. And the character traits that they have might be just a byproduct of being a founder/CEO and not what helped them get there.