And if you’re in the top, say 1/3, of engineers you’ll make a good living. If you’re in the top 1% of say, chess players, you probably won’t even get tournament invites.
Tournament jobs is even a term. Look for any field that has unpaid or very lowly paid internships (or would-be actors waiting tables) because so many people will work for nothing to get a foot in the door hoping for a big break.
Similarly for musicians: teaching music is a reasonably stable income stream.