A colleague of mine more than a decade ago started a company in the alternative energy space with very interesting yet extremely difficult and unproven technolo

A colleague of mine more than a decade ago started a company in the alternative energy space with very interesting yet extremely difficult and unproven technology. It took them a decade to find out that the performance of the technology was not quite good enough to be commercially successful. He burned perhaps a third of his working life grinding away on something that won't succeed - perhaps at all. Yes, there is some chance of a base hit OEM deal for a very niche application of the technology. But it's definitely not making anyone rich after so many years. Hard startups are exciting and fun, but unless you are already rich, it may not be worth the risk. Comparatively, you could spin up and fail five times at an "easy tech" startup and perhaps have a greater overall chance of winning the one time that you need to win to make it all worthwhile.