Well put, MoeJoe. With the move towards non-traditional, and more dynamic publishing systems (such as PTP), it's a whole lot easier to be successful. The only thing you need to work hard at is marketing, and you're golden. It also helps to have a little up front cost too. And here's the real kick in the pants. Up until 10 years ago, the only real way to be hugely successful was to get picked up by a big publishing house, and sometimes (as someone else mentioned) even that wasn't a guarantee of success.
Now it's actually better in many ways to strike out on your own and do your own publishing, or do Pay to Publish (PTP). Why? Your chances of success are better, you retain full control of your book and all associated elements of it (with a few limited exceptions), and the available marketing tools provided by the internet are incredible. And if your book finds its way into the hands of the right person, the social web itself will more or less market your book for you.
The thing is though, in a world where everyone can get published, only the best will shine. So in some ways it's similar to the old system where the big houses picked those who would be successful and those who wouldn't. But instead of being forced to go through the nonsense of big house publishing, it's now the public at large who decide if you will be successful or not, which IMHO is the way it should be.
Why? I'd rather have 1 person who bought my book because it came highly recommended from a friend than have 10 people buy it because some marketing hype machine told them they should. Believe it or not, you will find that at the end of the day, the one friend recommendation will carry more power with it than all the marketing hype out there. And even if your growth is slow and steady, it sure beats the pump and dump success arc you'll see with a big marketing push that only runs for a limited time.
I should know, as I spent three years using mostly word of mouth marketing (I'd say 98% of my marketing was word of mouth) to drag my tiny little Linux site (raiden.net) from total obscurity up to being one of the top ten Linux sites on the web. That's a huge nod towards word of mouth marketing, which in today's age can be either your greatest ally, or worst enemy. But either way it'll be the strongest tool in your arsenal. And it'll also help you get better at writing, because if your book isn't being recommended, you need to stop and ask yourself, why? What are you doing wrong? And once you know that, you need to fix it. Either way, in the end you'll either get better or give up. Either way, what's best for you and your readers will be what wins out the day. And if quitting for now is the best thing for you, then do it.
Yes, that sounds a bit shocking, but think of it this way. If you take a little time away from actually publishing (not writing, mind you, just publishing) and work hard to improve your writing through experimental works, then when you finally get to that point where people can't wait for the next little experimental piece, then it's time once again to try your hand at publishing, because you now have reached a point where people *will* recommend you to their friends, and that right there is the one thing you want most.