Am I mad? Possibly.
I'm 21 years old, and I've always wanted to be a pilot, ever since I was a kid. I've been gliding for several years and love that, but I've also flown a Cessna a few times and it's just so much fun, and there's nothing I'd rather do than fly for a living.
I got into the best university in the UK (or the second best, depending where your loyalties lie!) but decided to leave as I wasn't enjoying it, and couldn't see myself completing my degree and finding a job I enjoyed and which paid well. Not many people leave my university for those reasons, but I'm still young and don't want to waste time doing something I don't enjoy. Money isn't everything.
Now I have a full-time job as a postman which I love. I don't see myself as defined by my job, I enjoy getting to know my community and take each day as it comes, and it's fun. For unskilled work, it pays very well and also we all got awarded free shares in Royal Mail which will be worth a few grand in three years when we can sell them.
I've worked out that if I save money frantically for 4 years, and only spend the bare minimum, I'll have enough money by the time I'm 26 to quit my job (or take a career break for a couple of years, which is like quitting but your job is guaranteed at the end of it) and do modular 0-ATPL training, and still have some left over for resits and landing fees. That would put me in the same position as I am now financially, but with an ATPL (f).
I'd then carry on working with Royal Mail and gradually fund hour building / keep current until I find any flying job in any location, and then do that to gain hours and eventually work my way up the chain. Maybe by then the market will be better and it won't take so long, maybe it won't be and it'll take years and years, but I won't have lost anything anyway.
How does that sound? Come on, how crazy am I?