My parents are classical musicians and always told this to me about going into the arts as a career. I even went briefly to film school, but backtracked because the career needed already-mature social skills to a level that I didn't develop for another 10 years. So I went STEMmish instead.

Now: I write because I can't not do it. I write to an audience of approximately zero readers, give or take fifty-ish a month. Even my Wordpress stats are way overstated as people probably just look at weird words and bounce -- I do long philosophical essays that very much depend on you having read my previous essays. I spend uncounted hours on it; I shirk from work and end up not looking for supplemental sources of income. Even with a baby, now that I barely have time to brush my teeth, whatever "me" time can be scraped is directed to my writing.

Sometimes I think I'm overtaken by delusions of grandeur, but surely I'd have been discouraged by now.