Building products and services is like driving an 18-wheeler cross country. Needs patience, dedication, long drawn effort, some degree of talent, team work, guidance, and what not.
Coding competitions are also like F1 races in that the problem space usually is very well-defined and very narrow. You'll only run in this track, you know pretty much exactly who your opponents are, you know exactly how much budget you have. The only things that are unpredictable are the weather on the day of the race, the accidents that may happen, a team member getting sick.
Building actual products and services is like driving an 18-wheeler in that the road is much more open and you don't know what other vehicles and/or reckless drivers you'll come across, the weather variation over a very long distance, traffic, road works and detours. The driver also needs to stay awake for much, much longer lengths of time.