The problem is not that you are working on the wrong things, but that you are working on the right things in the wrong way.
Creating a startup is really not that hard.
- Figure out what people want.
- Build it and serve it to them better than anyone else.
It's commonly clear that for this you need to build product, talk to people, learn from that, and iterate.
The mistake I see a lot is not that people are working on the wrong things. But that they are not executing in the right way.
They let excuses get in the way.
They delay things for "just one more day".
They are not determined in getting the results they need.
If you want to build something that matters and make a dent in the universe you need to always find a way. Move with determination. And execute hard on the thing that is in front of you.
The magic is not in the "what" but in the "how". Ideas are worthless, execution is all that makes the difference.