Stop whatever you're doing now and read this book: "The Practicing Mind: Developing Focus and Discipline in Your Life - Master Any Skill or Challenge by Learning to Love the Process" by Thomas M. Sterner.
"What's left is real estate, but I'm regularly told I shouldn't even bother if I'm not a fix-it handyman sort, which I'm not."
You don't need to do the fixing yourself... My advice would be to read 3+1 Plan book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_3%2B1_Plan). You can get it for free in PDF from the author if you sing up for one of his websites.
What I don't like in discussions like this is that people are looking for a binary answer to a problem that clearly has no this type of solution (it actually may be sensible to start up alone but it depends on personal situation of the person with the initial idea...).
The issue is made even worse by those who 'have already done it'. We hear this all the time: you have to do A, C and F but never M to achieve Z.
Finally, I've always thought that delicious.com was started by one guy working part-time and only when there was some traction there was another guy taken on board. Am I correct?
The investment works because in 10 years time you own bigger chunk of the asset (Mostly due to inflation but also debt repayment from rent).