How to get started? What's your Unreal Story? Inspire me

I’ve been using UE4 since the subscription days and I’m at the point where I can get a good amount done and make things look polished (I think that is the word i’m looking for). The only completed projects I’ve had were just renditions of old school games playing around with 2d and top down. So I’ve got a good amount of experience with basic blueprint and the like. My question is though where do I go from here. Like I wanna find a group to work on something with and I haven’t found any luck. Not looking for pay mainly just a portfolio builder or an opportunity to network

I tried doing my own solo project which almost turned out right, but was lacking in third person game play knowledge and 3d models. Now I have combat prototyped and I’m still lacking in the model situation ( Only cause I need specific ones)
It was basically gonna be Dragons Dogma meets Dark Souls meets Majora’s Mask in a sense. Which I didn’t need much for the demo, but without the right models it just felt soulless.

Point is does anyone have any inspirational startup stories or advice for a newcomer?