From "Turning Pro," by Stephen Pressfield:

     "Before we begin ruthlessly deconstructing the amateur life, let's pause for a moment to give it its due. The amateur life is our youth. It's our hero's journey.
     No one is born a pro. You've got to fall before you hit bottom, and sometimes that fall can be a hell of a ride.
     So here's to blackouts and divorces, to lost jobs and lost cash and lost self-respect. Here's to time on the street. Here's to years we can't remember. Here's to bad friends and cheating spouses--and to us, too, for being guilty of both.
     Becoming a pro, in the end, is nothing grander than growing up."