Ask HN: Successful entrepreneurs and indie hackers, enlighten me

Successful entrepreneurs and indie hackers, I'm curious about where your best idea(s) came and what your own path looks like.

- I just turned 18 and finished school and I'm about to get into a university for engineering in Greece. - I have some pressure for inside to build wealth despite not needing it to survive. - I have many interests including programming, spearfishing, financial markets, computing, building in general (software and/or hardware). I have a large list of pain points, ideas, things missing from the world (~500 items) with probably at least 10 items that could be monetized and that I would genuinely love to build. - Update: I'm already working on a few things, most of them with a prospect of making money at some point, though that is not the main reason for building them / working on them.

The questions I have are the following: 1. What did/does your path look like? I'd appreciate having something for reference. Did you work a job? Are you self-taught?

2. Do you have any advice?

3. Was working together with someone the key to your success? Did you do it solo?

4. What would you do if you had to start over?

5. Do you feel like you'd be better off studying something else at university, if applicable?

Update: What I'd like is to hear some of your experience. If you're solo, did you have a network, how did you build it? How did you raise funds? How did you find a co-founder (if you did)? Did you work a job/freelance/seasonal work first and then bootstrap some project/startup/side-hustle? Did your specific idea come from your experience in a job, university project, everyday life, or something else? Did you make any money throughout your venture? Did you have an alternative income source while working on your own business/side-hustle/project/startup?

Thanks!