This applies at some level. I recall Arnold Palmer years ago in an interview said that anyone can become a professional golfer, all you have to do is hit 2-3 thousand golf balls per day for ten years. I used to love golf. I even got a one day a week gig marshaling to pay my greens fees. I golfed 36 holes twice a week. So I was at the club 3 days a week. Every one of those 3 days would start with 2 large buckets. I did that for about 3 years. Thats roughly 900 strokes a week. Just shy of half of what Arnie recommend every day... I plaid by the rules and had a PGA registered handicap of 11 after all that. One day in a tournament I finished the front 9 one under without handicap. That gets your mind whirling! I finished 10 over LOL! Dream crushed.
Back to brewing... it takes way more than a dream to be a successful upstart brewery owner/operator. Aside from all the things already mentioned, it takes crazy levels of obsession. I love brewing, but not that much.
I knew a guy a long time ago that everyone said was the best they had seen, and had golfed at a high level in college. He started on the pro circuit for a while, and said when you had to make a put for big $, it became a mental game, and he couldn't do it. He said the pressure was too much for his personality.
Ya I hear that for sure.
The underlying point is applicable to this going pro thread. When you have an 11 golf handicap, that means on average you bogey 11 holes and par 7. Occasionally you birdey a hole and double bogey one. Its bound to happen one day when the stars align that you put 8 pars and a birdey down on one side. Its easy to think "wow, if I do that again on the back nine, I could go pro!" If you did that routinely without effort, even when you don't feel good, and 12,000 people are watching, and 5 camera crews, and there's a million dollars on the line... sure!
My point is, thats how many dreamer home brewers think. "Wow! My mom likes my beer and I got a medal on one beer at NHC! If my mom likes it, maybe everyone's mom will like it. And I'm clearly a medal winning brewer, so I'm basically Jamil and Gordon all rolled it one! Plus, I usually don't bounce checks, so I've got the accounting part down pat"