Well in my case It is true, If all the time I spent on learning a musical instrument I spent on making money I could be very rich 
While my friends are busy filling up their banks I am learning classical, acoustic, electric guitar, drums, and so on LOL
I speak 3 languages I could concentrate on trade or something…
But I love music . What can I do? some times I tell myself you should have spent more time learning stock market etc… LOL
But every thing except music is boring
I’ve been paid to play so no I wouldn’t be richer and success isn’t measured in Dollar. You can be successful in music and still be poor.
Yes , so many countries people can not afford a good musical instrument. I wish some thing could be done . sending free musical instruments etc through charity
It depends on how you define “rich”. My life is richer for the music I play, perhaps my wife’s is poorer.
That’s so sad but dang those sound good!!!
Fortunately my wife supports me , she even recently has picked up a guitar and is trying to learn
she was telling me when we grow old I want to make sure have the same hobby as yours . She even paid a portion of my electric guitar as a gift .
Life is trade offs and opportunity cost. A common theme here is people not focusing on music for a long time, and then picking it up again in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. Presumably after focusing more on career and family for a large part of their lives.
How fit would you be if all the time you spent playing, you spent exercising?
How skilled at chess would you be if you substituted the same?
Music enriches our lives, I think we’re all choosing to spend time doing it.
You need to do what you love in life, otherwise what is the point in living? Money pays the bills and buys materialistic things, most of which you don’t actually need, but it doesn’t buy you contentment or happiness. If it did, we wouldn’t see rich celebs bumping themselves off every so often, would we?
I used to have a great job with a fat income. I worked hard, I worked long hours, I’d take my work home, and I’d stress about it. The fact that I could afford what I wanted when I wanted was no consolation, especially given that I had little time or was too tired to enjoy the things I was buying. I ended up fairly well off, but exhausted and miserable.
Then I changed my life, becoming self-employed in a job in which I worked for a fairly set period, then came home and forgot all about it until the next working day. I earned around a third of what I did previously, and I could not afford to splurg on anything that I didn’t absolutely need. But I had the time to engage in the things I really enjoy… guitar, art, hiking, touring on my motorbike. I ended up fairly poor, but relatively happy and content.
We live in a society in which we’re ingrained with the belief that working ourselves as hard as possible and earning stacks of cash should be our aim, and that doing so will get us the fairy tale life we dream of. Yet most will work hard without ever seeing those stacks of cash, and even those that do often realise that they are not the golden ticket they were made out to be. The world would be a much better place if the human race could collectively ditch it’s insatiable quest for wealth, and focus on inner fulfilment instead. But of course, that will never happen.
I feel pretty successful and it is thanks to my hobby, I could earn more but I wouldn’t be as successful or rich emotionally to feel fulfilled. Having money is great but it wouldn’t make me more successful if I had more income.
I guess all depends on your measure of success