I grew up nearly the same. Built many of my own tools from what I could find literally laying around.
Please take my comment here as my experiences shared in the hope you get something good from them. It's nothing more than that, and it's worth what you paid too.
Fast forward many years:
Today I'm working on an advanced additive manufacturing machine in a company I and a friend started. I'm doing electronics, working with advanced CNC machines, writing some code, and doing a lot of stuff that was hobby type dreaming a decade and change ago.
The team is largely people who really enjoy the electromechanical world, some have gone to school, some haven't. Nobody cares about any of that. We all want to make something cool happen.
When I took my first job, I began to also take up hobbies. Spent a number of years in manufacturing, during which I did a lot of computing on whatever computers I could get my hands on, or seat time with. Next job was CAD related, and I spent time on electronics again.
Wash, rinse, repeat a few times and those hobbies are real!
Each one ended up adding to the set of things I can do and as that set expanded, and as my circle of friends and professional contacts expanded, so did my potential opportunities. Get the skill, look for an opening to do it professionally, do it, get help if you need to, wash, rinse, repeat.
I think about what I can get done now and how it might pay me and those close to me. That stuff is real.
At one point in my life, I could see some real opportunity, but I was going to have to lean into it. So I quit modern gaming. This was big! I do retro, and play the occasional title I find interesting, but pushing that out of the front row in my life both hurt and was amazing!
See, I got bored. And that's how a lot of good stuff starts. The amazing part was finding out that being bored means I'm also receptive to learning new things. And doing stuff is a lot more fun than thinking about it all is too.
If I think about what I could have done, if... I get depressed. And that stuff is fantasy.
So I just don't do that.
Maybe this helps you some.
Look, there is no doubt luck plays a big role in our lives. No joke.
I can also say that if you invest in yourself, network with others and essentially expand your receptivity to luck, your chance of experiencing some goes up and with that come opportunities.
I do take some pride in the fact that I really did get a lot of my skills the hard way. Same with any money. And if times get tough, I really do know how to deal and can do that, am used to doing that, to a much greater degree than many of these lucky people might be. And helping others get things done often lead to them helping me.
We all need a little help. Give and get. That's the rule.
One can have a significant impact on the world, and many people without any of those nice things.
Consider making it all about what you can do and what that can mean. You will be very likely to do more than you think and it will mean more than you expect it to. Ask me how I know. :)