Many people believe that great designers get great clients. It's the other way around.
If you measure it, it will improve.
Sure, compare. But compare the things that matter to the journey you're on. The rest is noise.
The question is not Will you succeed? but rather, Will you matter?
Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that is creative, passionate and personal. Art is the unique work of a human being created to touch another. Art is created to have an impact, to change someone else.
No one ever gets talker's block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say, and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.