It's a helluva lot easier to wake up and do something every day that has a lot of meaning/appeal for you. IF that something is really social status, OK. But that means nothing for a whole lot of people. (In my experience, it's the majority.)

If what you really care about doing quickly eventually liberates you from laboring at it, you'll not stop - you'll have a lot more liberty to expand outward from that core and build on it. No matter how little most people appreciate it (set theory, for example) ... who cares? there will always be a least a few others.