This may not be the answer you were hoping for, but if you do not have the background already to do this sort of thing and if you are not already stubborn enoug

This may not be the answer you were hoping for, but if you do not have the background already to do this sort of thing and if you are not already stubborn enough to start learning mathematics on your own, school may be for you. I assume you are not stubborn enough to start doing so because you have not done so already. A short master's (3-4 semesters) is about enough to have all the math background + some application classes.