Just be nice, take genuine interest in the people you meet, and keep in touch with people you like. This will create a group of people who are invested in helping you because they know you and appreciate you.

For me writing is as close to being an engineer as possible.

If you truly don't have competition, then zoom out until you can define some. Competition can be as simple as the reliance on the status quo, Microsoft (since at some point Microsoft will compete with everyone for everything), or researchers in universities. Pick something, because saying you have no competition at all is a nonstarter.

Create something, sell it, make it better, sell it some more and then create something that obsoletes what you used to make.

At the end of the day in business, it's not about peer review and getting into a scientific journal. You either increase sales, or not.

If you don't toot your own horn, don't complain that there's no music.

Knowledge is great. Competence is great. But the combination of both encourages people to trust you and increases your powers of enchantment. And in this world, the combination is a breath of fresh air.