[Tutor] Real world experience

[C Smith]

I have never known anyone that works in this industry. I got one job
transforming xml (should have used xslt, ended up using sed and python
regex scripts) where the guy asked me how much I wanted and I threw
200 bucks out there because I could get a room for two weeks at that
cost. He just laughed and handed me the money. That is the only
professional experience I have and no formal education whatsoever
(some high school). I have been doing online stuff and hit a wall in a
'design of computer programs' class on udacity. I made it about
halfway through but started back at square one to sharpen my skills
before trying to come at it again from a different angle. I started to
feel overwhelmed when trying to basically recode regex (functions for
'*' and '.' for instance) in python and make an api to interact easily
with the text parser.

I am still completely in the dark about what level of difficulty I
would be facing in the professional world.
If this is difficult at all for me, is there hope to think about
making money in this field?
I am pretty persistent and can keep up a level of work if I am not
even close yet, but I don't know if I am a year off or 10 years off.
Are basic scripting skills employable at even a very low rate (10
bucks an hour)?
What level of experience are the people at who make 100k a year?
Sorry if this is off-topic for the list, but I am trying to get past a
psychological hurdle or two before reapplying myself and hopefully it
would be valuable to others as well.