Balancing that previous wide-eyedly optimistic post:

“Anyone committing himself to his calling has volunteered for hell, whether he knows it or not. He will be dining for the duration on a diet of isolation, rejection, self-doubt, despair, ridicule, contempt, and humiliation. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable… Because this is war, baby. And war is hell.”
– Successful novelist and screenwriter Steven Pressfield