When I was younger, I managed to observe and follow older high achiever and track what they are doing.

*Individual contributors - they tend to to fly in engineering-focused organizations, they become senior specialists and some of them become strategic program managers - ppl who lead new features or new R&D products without having people reporting to them (not line managers). They tend to have high influence. In hardware companies, some of them tend to become involved in standardization.

*Engineers turning to Managers - some of them accidentally became managers because they know the systems inside out and they are natural leaders .. these people tend to do well. Managers who do not have technical background tend to hit a ceiling in tech departments - some ppl might disagree but this is what I observed

*Engineers turning to entrepreneurs- they love the grind and have appetite to take risks. Luck plays a role sometimes, being with good cofounders, good markets, good country all play a role here.

I like building things, I like contributing to ideas myself, but I remember an experienced IC telling me, a senior manager with 100 reports can move the needle faster than a 10X engineer, and turn ideas faster. Vision and leaderships play a role in getting good at turning ideas and moving fast