Given the 10,000 hour rule as generally true (at least in spirit), what's very difficult and seldom discussed is just how hard it is to get there at anything worthwhile once you're passed a certain point in life. Why? Because job. Having gone through college and taken work terms between years, I saw this first-hand: after you're done 9 to 5 for that paycheck (+food, +commuting, +exercise, +social life), good luck fin…
There are ways around the 'because job' problem. I've been reading a lot on this guys blog: http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ and he's got some pretty interesting ideas on getting off the treadmill, with both actionable advice and the lead character eating his own dogfood.
I tend to see this as failure of humans in general to visualize large structures. There fore similar things like large timelines, growth scenario's, compounding. One would be surprised how common this is. People can think of probably a couple of years, but their understanding fails them when they have imagine of scenarios 2 or 3 decades from now. Some times its so bad, they even totally avoid thinking about it.
I know a lot of people who made a fortune in the 1990's when they were in their 20's, but are now back to where they were when they are in their 40's. And you don't have to even to win the start up lottery to do this. A good savings and investment strategy will get you there. But that very rarely happens.
Most people can at most simply maintain the status quo all their lives.