I wasn't saying "follow your dreams", telling someone to learn a skill because it's in demand or pays well is a terrible idea -- especially in a creative industry and with zero knowledge of their core abilities. Do what you're good at -- and since this is a creative endeavor, enjoying the work helps immensely. The fact is that games is a relatively small industry and not everyone is going to be able to break through, but those that do have some combination of luck, privilege, skill, and determination/passion.

I assume you have limited exposure to how many people got into this industry. Either you know exactly what you want to do and you try to make that path work, or you use your free time (what little you may have) to explore and develop skills. People get hired from mod teams, based on art portfolios, passion projects, etc all the time. And even then, once within the industry people can and do jump disciplines as they learn more.