With proper planning, there's a point at which you should cut losses and leave the industry if it isn't working out. Many do, but they don't usually waste their time here at APC living in their past.

Most professional baseball players don't make it to the majors and live a pretty rough life riding on buses between games and making about as much as regional pilots (less AAA). At some point, after a few years of valiantly trying to make it into the majors, they realize they are at the point of diminishing returns or losing opportunity cost elsewhere, and hopefully they learned something else useful in school and can contribute to society in some other way, and make more money and be happier elsewhere.

Unfortunately in the regional industry, the carrots keep on appearing, pay slowly increases, the comfort of the lounge chair keeps increasing ever so slightly, and we are too dumb to realize that despite the lounge chair getting more comfortable, the hammer coming down on our nuts keeps on dropping, but we promise ourselves (and our families) it's only a few more nut hammerdrops then it will be better. Next thing you know you're a lifer. Eff that. Set benchmarks for QOL improvement (with a reasonable but not indefinite allowance for things outside of your control). Have a backup plan. And know when to cut slingload.

When you invest money, you don't just hang on to a losing position hoping it will go back up at some point. You constantly reevaluate, and sell the equity when it no longer is the best position for your money. A dream to fly professionally can turn into a financial and emotional nightmare, especially in this BS regional scheme. Gotta always have an exit plan. The regional lifers (incl those who don't know they're lifers) most likely don't have a plan B.