Go load freight in an ancient HS-748 freighter in the Canadian Arctic for 13 consecutive winters while your hands freeze to the control column (no autopilot) and your departure is delayed an hour due to absense of fuel truck driver, who is either drunk or incarcerated due to drunken spousal assault and there is currently nobody in the town (pop. 1200) qualified to replace him. Once, by some miracle the aircraft is refueled, you are further delayed due to dog on runway and nobody availble to shoot it.
When you finally get back to "base", the great big town pop. 5000... you share a house in questionable condition with 4-5 other crew members that you may not like. But that is too bad. Hopefully they haven't used all the water - which is trucked in.
Once you have done your time having the crap scared out of you in conditions you could never encounter in a simulator in Miami or DXB, we'll talk about who is a mercenary and who is A REAL PILOT...
Some of us earn it. Some of us fly like our grandmothers might have.