Part of the issue is that it is difficult to come up with problems worth solving. I think Joel and Fogcreek is a great example. He started out with the premis

Part of the issue is that it is difficult to come up with problems worth solving. I think Joel and Fogcreek is a great example. He started out with the premis that you don't need an idea for a successful software company, you just need to find great devs and create the best working conditions and then success would come. This was a novel idea at the time since Apple was the only FAANG that even existed and this was their "beleaguered" period. As should come as no surprise to anybody, they ended up creating...bug tracking tools and a kanban board, albeit quite good ones. Another thing that helps, since the problem is not your own but somebody elses, you don't get bogged down trying to figure out the best way to solve it for yourself, you just solve it for somebody else without all the emotional attachment to the problem. This lets you instead be emotionally attached to the process. Point being, I think you're selling yourself short.