If you want to go into cybersecurity here's an idea (I haven't tried it, so ymmv)
1) look up people who claim to be in cybersecurity on some site like LinkedIn - see what their titles are, where they work, and so on.
2) see if you can find their resumes or any detailed cybersecurity resume - you are looking for keywords, application software, languages they claim to know, etc
3) look up job interview questions that relate to those skills, e.g. glassdoor has a fun feature where people have shared the actual questions they were asked during an interview
4) find free or cheap online resources, classes, demo/free versions of apps, set up a home lab, so you can become familiar with those skills, languages, tools. etc as much as possible and for as little as possible.
5) read a site like "stack overflow" with a focus on the skills/apps that cyber security researchers are likely to use, and see what questions the tend to ask, etc.
6) Develop some study cards on Anki with the interview questions you are likely to get and answers that might fly. Don't be complacent, expand on this as you go along, adding more and improving what you have.
7) See if you can find one-off "cybersecurity" gigs on craigslist or fiverr, etc. where you can be paid something - anything - to do something security related. Not only might this improve your confidence, it will generate a little bit of money instead of you paying money. You can also check out the competition and see what they are doing, for how much, etc.
8) Read up on "cybersecurity" related topics, people, trends, books, movies, etc. Get a feel for things as they are, were, or might be.
Your title says "people who did hard things" then you say "less interested in people..."
It sounds like you want second hand accounts of the events or groups that occurred around "hard things". Like a description of NASA going to the moon, but not the accounts of a particular astronaut.
1) look up people who claim to be in cybersecurity on some site like LinkedIn - see what their titles are, where they work, and so on.
2) see if you can find their resumes or any detailed cybersecurity resume - you are looking for keywords, application software, languages they claim to know, etc
3) look up job interview questions that relate to those skills, e.g. glassdoor has a fun feature where people have shared the actual questions they were asked during an interview
4) find free or cheap online resources, classes, demo/free versions of apps, set up a home lab, so you can become familiar with those skills, languages, tools. etc as much as possible and for as little as possible.
5) read a site like "stack overflow" with a focus on the skills/apps that cyber security researchers are likely to use, and see what questions the tend to ask, etc.
6) Develop some study cards on Anki with the interview questions you are likely to get and answers that might fly. Don't be complacent, expand on this as you go along, adding more and improving what you have.
7) See if you can find one-off "cybersecurity" gigs on craigslist or fiverr, etc. where you can be paid something - anything - to do something security related. Not only might this improve your confidence, it will generate a little bit of money instead of you paying money. You can also check out the competition and see what they are doing, for how much, etc.
8) Read up on "cybersecurity" related topics, people, trends, books, movies, etc. Get a feel for things as they are, were, or might be.
Good luck.