First off I never said I got hired with less than 1000 hours, I didn't.
Second the only reason I didn't get the ATR is because I wasn't one of the youngest guys in class.
Finally here is something to consider for the OP. on average the money you have invested in the stock market doubles every 7 years. If you were to take the money you got from your inheritance and invest it while working at an engineering job (even aerospace if you truly love airplanes) you could easily scratch your flying itch with your own plane on the side. For argument's sake lets say your inheritance was 80k since that's what you'll be spending on your flight training, and let's say you would have spent 42 years in the career.
Years 1-6: 80,000
Years 7-13: 160,000
Years 14-20: 320,000
Years 21-27: 640,000
Years 28-34: 1,280,000
Years 35-41: 2,560,000
So you're looking at $2,560,000 just on the money you would have spent going to flight school, this isn't counting your salary at an engineering job (which would most likely pay better than an airline job). In this scenario you could still fly and on your own terms. Flying for a living takes a lot of the fun aspects out of aviation. So my question is why chase the career when you could spend much less getting a private and instrument and still fly whenever you wanted?