Michelle,

I like your attitude. Though there's a ton of money to be had, your priority is to look at it with an artist's perspective. Some of us do this because we fell into it, saw a way to make good money or even because we liked the clarity that all those ones and zeros seem to have (bad news on that point, BTW), but not as many of us (I imagine) are as caught up in the product from an artistic point of view. I've always seen the correlation between art/music and programming where others around me were primarily just seeing the cause and affect. Not a better philosophy, just different. Probably comes from a deep-seated fear of math as a child and just a bit too much enjoyment from fingerpainting. :)

It's always been my thought that if you have personal integrity, learn as much as you can, work hard, enjoy what you do and treat others with the same respect you would ask for yourself, the rest will follow. Listen to all the lessons others have learned, the hard way and otherwise, and don't ever become discouraged to the point you lose sight of why you wanted to do this in the first place.

Oh, yeah... As Erik and others here have pointed out, don't forget to learn as much technical stuff as you can; it's hard to create if you don't know how.

Renoir