8 years of experience, an Master's Degree, and currently on a 1.5-year gap. Is the "Founder" dream actually a trap for engineers?

I’m having a bit of a mid-career crisis and wanted to get some perspective from other seniors here.

I’ve got 8+ years as a Senior Backend Engineer. I’ve architected high-scale APIs and handled complex DBs. On paper, I should be "set." But the reality of the last year has been incredibly humbling.

I took a career break a year and a half ago to travel and try building my own things—an AI-based resume tool and an IT consultancy. My total revenue after months of work? Exactly 0.

It’s a weird feeling. I can architect a system for a billion requests for a corporate giant, but I feel totally lost trying to solve a simple problem for one real human who is willing to pay me. I see guys building "stupidly simple" apps that making $25k MRR, while I’m over here over-engineering systems that nobody even looks at.

On top of that, trying to look back at the job market is a nightmare. After 8 years of solving actual business problems, I feel like I have to go back and memorize Leetcode like a fresh graduate just to prove I can code.

Does anyone else feel this? Like you have the "Expertise" but absolutely no "Direction"? How do you stop the burnout when you’re doing all the "right" things but seeing zero results? I feel like I’m a senior dev who has to learn how to be a junior all over again.