Well, first off, let me say thank you.

As to your question, it's hard to say, but I don't feel like that's the front where I might've suffered the biggest setback as a consequence of this.

I've always been very introspective, so I think the mission of internal validation was compensated for. What I'm not naturally is pragmatic, so I think a lack of financial need took some of the steam out of my engine in terms of career development.

For example, I wrote three books but barely promoted them. I was intrinsically motivated to write and improve my craft--was constantly writing, no matter what--but not very motivated to try to make money off of it. Of course, I would've had to try to make money off of them (or by some other method) if it hadn't been simply handed to me.