Practice always pays off. Definitly hard to practice everything, though.

What do you practice? Guitar? Bass? Drums? Piano? Harmonica? Mandolin? Singing? Harmony.

Writing music? Writing lyrics? Writing hooks? Writing instrumentation?

Recording guitar? recording vocals? Recording bass? Recording drums? Recording Harmonica?

Producing, Mixing, Mastering

That is what we are all trying to do when we want to do it all ourselves. And every piece is as important as the other.

it could take a lifetime just to master lyrics alone!

Far as the old days, I think Paul Simon had a similar experience as Hank Thompson. He and Garfunkel wrote a song and took it to a public studio which cost them 25 bucks, no editing, if you screwed up tuff luck that was your record.

They pulled it off a song called "Hey School Girl" as luck would have it an exec who was using the studio after they were really liked them, and signed them to a deal.

Luck isnt going away either, need luck as well as talent and hard work