When I spend too much time on R&D building something big and it doesn't work out the way I planned; the first thought is to turn it into a platform and sell it

When I spend too much time on R&D building something big and it doesn't work out the way I planned; the first thought is to turn it into a platform and sell it to other people who might find it useful. Then I remember that starting and running a company is exponentially harder than developing a killer app, so the next thought is to open-source and document it and hope people pay me as a consultant... It seems this thought process is universal.