Help: Feeling defeated and looking for advice/guidance

Hi all,

I've been a long time reader here, but this is my first post. I'm looking for advice/guidance, but wanted to give my back story first:

I started working with affiliate marketing almost 10 years ago promoting web hosting products. I made a few sales pretty quickly, which was encouraging for my first attempt, but it quickly dried up. I've worked in other various niches, built lists, but never saw any real profits.

I've been a full-time software engineer (web, desktop, mobile) at a fast-paced consulting firm for the last 10 years. I don't want to sound like I have a big head, but I believe I have a real gift when it comes to software. I have an ability to quickly visualize solutions, and I routinely take on and deliver projects that my fellow developers think either unfeasible or impossible.

About 3 years ago I partnered up with a marketer, salesman and a designer to produce a social network product for a specific business niche. After spending about 1.5 years of nearly all of my free time developing this product, there were no real sales, the salesman backed out suddenly and the marketer gave up completely. I was crushed.

After that, the designer and I took our ideas (and lessons learned from the first product) and partnered with another salesman, who had a record in internet marketing. I completely rewrote the original product to be less niche specific and more flexible in what markets it can target. I spent the next year of my free time developing this product only to realize that the new marketing guy was only doing this to try and get me to come work for the company he held a position at, and hadn't even tested the product we'd been working on, never mind sell it. Another crushing blow.

Since then I've produced some mobile games and applications, but haven't seen any success from them. I spent several months developing my latest trivia game, but it was rejected due to possible copyright issues.

Sorry to vent. It's hard to keep going on when you feel like everything you've done has gone to waste. I realize it's not a complete waste as I've learned valuable lessons from my mistakes and continue to develop my programming skills, but it doesn't make it any easier. I see my co-workers go home and spend their free time doing leisurely activities, while I spend most of my free time trying to build a successful product, and yet I'm no better off then them.

So, to make a long story short, I'm here to gain wisdom and direction. I know I have the ability to build essentially anything software-wise, but marketing isn't my strong point, and I don't know what direction to go in. I haven't been one to ask for advice from others (admittedly part of the problem) so this is my start.

I humbly thank you for any advice/guidance you can offer.