Thank you for sharing; I agree with your conclusions about education in general.

With regards to having something to protect, I still haven't figured out what mine is, so I can't answer your final question.

I can, however, observe that many important discoveries and business ventures seem to result from two factors:

1) Having a prepared mind (be looking for opportunity, have the wealth/intelligence/influence to leverage the new information).

2) Complete chance.

Observe that Fleming's discovery of Penicillin started with him discovering some mold; Percy Spenser discovered microwave cooking when he was working with microwave emitters and noticed a candy bar melting; Viagra was originally investigated for high blood pressure, until doctors started getting awkward reports from their patients...

The list goes on.

My point is that it seems like an established pattern that "smart people in the right places at the right times noticing things" is a way people find out what they want to do, and it sounds like you experienced a similar situation.

I think this quote applies beyond just science:

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but “That’s funny …” — Isaac Asimov

https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2012/may/04/oops-invented-rocket-happy-accidents http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/03/02/eureka-funny/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven#Discovery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sildenafil#History