Well I suppose some do it for that reason, or maybe many.
I was of the era that if you were not strenuously exerting yourself, doing all you can, not "being kind to yourself", then your eyeballs were going to be the snack for a few large crows.
So I did not have enough money to survive, no health insurance, etc., and I was hoping day by day that jehoopla would provide.
I pioneered out of fear and because I was forced to (I was not allowed to get a full-time job after high school), not out of some lame desire for recognition. Admiration from that ship of fools was never something I valued.
Pioneering proved to me, once and for all, that jehoopla either did not exist, was not able to help his followers, or did not care.