Since you brought up compiler engineer :-), I'll share that at the outset 100% of my colleagues and friends all said I had zero chance of succeeding writing compilers. They literally laughed, and it was a running joke among among them. The only person who believed in me was my dad, and he had no idea what I was trying to do.

I chose the path. Everyone tried to kick me off that path. I could have easily stayed with my nice, safe, corporate job at Boeing. Lots and lots of people do.

Influence should not be conflated with force. If someone put a gun to my head, I'd probably do whatever they ask. In fact, I have. Twice. That's force. It's a heluva lot different from mere influence.