I suppose there's a point when one gets too old that they MUST continue down the aviation path, but to the OP who saw the need to take action and did so accordingly...what's wrong with that? Is he a failure?
Wrong, no. It's not wrong. What's wrong is blaming the industry as some on this board are wont to do when they look back at a career attempt that they believe did not go their way.
Giving up in the early stages of an aviation career and calling it "cutting one's losses," however, is much like buying an automobile and turning it back in half-way through making the payments. Certainly one is "cutting losses," but the truth is that one simply hasn't finished making the necessary investment in the car.
The only person who can determine if the original poster is a failure is the original poster. If the original poster believes the industry failed him or her, then chances are that the original poster is a failure, or the cuase of a failure, with respect to the attempted career. If instead the original poster views his or her career attempt as an experiment in which he learned that it just wasn't for him, that her heart simply wasn't in it, or that the original expectations had been unrealistic and a reassessment of the future dictated a different direction, then one could argue that the original poster was successful in his or her endeavor.
If it's all achoice, why isn't everybody working at their proverbial dream job?
It's their own fault.
We're the pilot in command. The buck stops with us. We don't guess. We don't suppose. We don't think we know. We know. We must know. We must not be in doubt. We don't blame the copilot. We don't blame the flight engineer. We don't blame anyone but ourselves, as we make the call, and we're responsible for the outcome. We don't wait for our ship to come in. We build it, and we sail it.
I'm working at my dream job. Such a job isn't an entry-level position, and frankly, I very much doubt that unless I get killed on the job, this will be my last. I'll enjoy the hell out of it while I can, and I'll make as much as I can, and I'll work as hard as I can, while I can. Then, if the situation dictates, I'll go find another dream job. I've had quite a few. I think that in every single case I've felt very grateful indeed to be there, and have been thankful for the job. This one is no different. I work for a great employer, a great operator, and job itself is...great.
Why isn't everyone else doing this job? I can't answer that, but I'm quite certain that everyone else doesn't want this job. Some might, and that's fine. I've found that axiomatically, as the proverb says, it's not really so much a matter of having what you want so much as wanting what you have.