I respectfully but entirely disgree.

The folks that you demurely say “get by just fine anyway” eventually give-up and go to work for a company that's big-enough to support more than one person...

Ahem.

“There is no shame in being self-taught,” as long as you actually learn.

If you find yourself five-years-on “employed” by a “company” that is still able to support no more than its founder, and at a level no more than “getting by,” then you have merely been u-n-e-m-p-l-o-y-e-d for a remarkably-long period of time! You Are Doing Something Fundamentally Wrong. Deal with it. Change. Grow.