[svasan]

While it is not easy to become an expert in any field or pursuit, one should neither overplay the "it is a very hard field / not very easy" argument nor should one underplay the effort involved in becoming good. 10000 hours (equates to roughly 5yrs at 40hrs per week) to expertize seems like a good rule of thumb to keep in mind. Someone said - "The test of a vocation is the love of the drudgery it involves."

For any field, one has to provide positive encouragement (and a good platform/set of tools and techniques) to people seeking to get into that field, while being grounded in reality.