You can do a lot of things on your own and you may even be successful at it but there are so many roadblocks intentionally put in your way. If you don't have the expertise to file an application paying someone else to counsel may be prudent. If you do have the expertise you'll probably make more being hired to file than the actual patent filer.

Anyway, she thought of an idea. Sketched and prototyped it. Hired a lawyer to file it and that was step 1. She wasn't able to manufacture, license, or sell her patent.

She went back to being a makeup artist and was mildly successful streaming.

Other friends with patents work for large corps (Siemens, Microsoft, Motorola) who handle it all automatically. They might have got a plaque and a annual bonus for their effort. None are wildly richer for it.

I got a dollar, for mine...

It doesn't cost that much to file a patent. It costs a ton of money to hire lawyers though.