I used to be a "9-5 engineer in a big company". But I always loved playing with robots. It took me years to a) learn how to build robots (started as a self-taug

I used to be a "9-5 engineer in a big company". But I always loved playing with robots. It took me years to a) learn how to build robots (started as a self-taught weekend hobby), and b) find companies that want to buy robots I can make. Now my niche is making and selling robots to companies. (My specific niche is shoebox-sized robots for testing/automating touchscreen devices.) The "niche eureka moment" was when I realized the "hardware testing with robots" niche was very similar to my existing "software test automation" 9-5 big company job skill set (modulo electronics+mechanical skills). Unfortunately, my discovery and learning process also involved a good amount of luck and trying to describe it feels a lot like step #2 in the "How to draw an owl" meme. At some point, luck and hard work is involved, and there is no obvious playbook for your next step. However, if there is a chiton of money to be made in Excel add-ins for amputee ballerinas, and you know how to make add-ins, and you know how to find and talk to amputee ballerinas, it might not be a bad career move, though...