A friend of mine built up $10,000 into a little over $100,000 back in the fabled '90s bull run. He used to tell me about his stock successes all the time. Friend has since blown out a large portion of his account and quit trading. Turns out he was riding the bull wave but didn't know much about the technicals or even the fundamentals at all. Just got real lucky.
I used to teach high school kids (if you can believe it with my potty mouth and all) but decided to change careers. I still love teaching but the salary is a total joke and i'd rather not deal with office politics.
So trading is where it's at. After an initial and painful learning curve it's been rewarding.