I wanted to go into the US Air Force as a pilot. Bad eyesight sabotaged me before I even got started. I joined the Air Force ROTC program hoping to be a navigator, navigators were phased out. I ended up working for 10 years, saving money, living with room mates, driving old cars, etc. before going to flight school. I finished flight school just 3 months before the 9/11 attacks, after which I earned only 400/mo flying as an instructor for half a year. But little by little I gained experience, and eventually got to the (regional) airlines. It was quite a struggle and a journey. In the end it probably was not worth it, but it was something to experience. The moral of the story is it takes A LOT of determination to make it to being an airline pilot. However, if you're willing to not worry too much about making money, you can certainly have an interesting career flying for charter operations in the developing world or Alaska.
If you're really good, you might make it through one of those airline sponsored ab-initio programs in Europe, but you have to be exceptional.