I am no help, but it is hard to maintain an interest in pool. You could morph into a world beater overnight, and all you would have access to us a half dozen guys with less that 40 bucks in their pockets and a couple local tournaments that pay 73 dollars for first place.
"We do it because we love the game". Well, ok, that is cool and all, but when people really love and are passionate about something, it is an almost 24/7 affair. Can't do that with pool; see above paragraph.
That last motivator is to play for recognition. I think this is the big one since there is nothing else for anyone. Guess what, nobody gives a damn how good you play. In fact, if you start playing really well, you will likely get a bunch of knuckleheads doing nothing but complain about your game, and you will get kicked out of all the 73 dollar tournaments.
You are pretty much ****ed.