I used to be a network engineer but the nature of that business being treated as costly overhead and my personal interest slowly diminishing meant when my employer was bought I had a chance to think about if I wanted to do that and I .... did not.
I tried coding in college but:
1. I was a terrible student at that time.
2. At that time it was largely "Here is a book about C ... memorize what I tell you in lecture... now figure it out."
Not a good combo.
I was always interested / reading about coding and I went to a bootcamp and found I was suddenly a good student out of nowhere.
I think maturity and focus (both came late for me) resulted in being really excited every day that someone was going to drop some knowledge on me in a way that...I didn't get when I was younger. A couple other older guys in class had the same experience.
Coming from a different background has helped in some ways. My coworkers can code faster than I can, but I find I have experience that I can pickup businesses logic, craft it appropriately / so that it is useful and can be extended as needed, and can talk to customers easily.