I made the switch from lawyer to pilot. I took my first flying lesson when I was 26. I continued to work full-time as a lawyer for the next two years while I got my private, instrument, commercial, CFI/CFII/MEI on the weekends and in mornings before work. I paid for everything as I did it so I have no flight training loans. I had no social life for that entire two years because I was either practicing law or flying or studying for checkrides. It was busy! When I had close to 400 hours, I got hired to do aerial survey in a 172. When that seasonal gig ended, I had about 1000 hours and I was hired by a regional. I stayed there for 3.5 years and left about 6 months ago for a part 135 job. I'm finally making *okay* money. It's still less than half of what I was making practicing law, but it's enough to pay the bills and save some money (unlike regionals). But I have no regrets! It's nice to have a job that I enjoy. But it took A LOT of work to get to this point, and I'm still not quite to where I want to be. I'm glad that I didn't know back then exactly how much work it would be. It will be even more work for you with the 1500 hour requirement. I was lucky to have missed that whole deal. If you have a job now that you hate, I think you'll have higher job satisfaction than most other pilots. That seems to be the case with me anyway. People will say that Great Lakes is the worst of the worst regionals (even though they've never actually worked there), but I enjoyed my time there. I was just happy to not be driving to a building in downtown and sitting at a desk every day! Anyway, a switch like that CAN be made, but it's definitely not going to be easy!