The problem here is that to someone from the outside, it's not obvious what 'the real thing' is.

For example, I have many times fallen into the trap of building something I thought was awesome and would sell well, only to find then that nobody wants to buy it.

I thought I was doing the real thing (building something), when in reality I should've talked to customers, or built an audience.

Actually, I'm still not 100% sure what constitutes as 'the real thing' in the kind of business I'm trying to build (creating educational technical content).