I am retired now with a modest pension which allows me to follow which ever creative path presents itself
Before that there was thirty+ years of employment which for the most part was good even fun at times.
A lot of that had to do with attitude I did at times make myself more unhappy than I needed to be.
At some point I put myself in the right place to get into computers and yes in the beginning I had to do some data entry
and I hated it but in the end that made me a better programmer because I designed systems that would be easier
for the data entry operators to use.
There were periods where I was stuck in jobs that wen nowhere.
There we working with a-holes when I had to keep my mouth very shut.
eventually through luck skill and patience I ended up kinda my own boss being left alone
to produce the occasional wonder.
I rose to a level where the BS was starting to seep in under my mostly closed office door thats when
they offered early retirement!