I disagree with the part that if you're doing it for the reward then it won't get anywhere. Mainly because of what you say: we do what we do to make a living.

However, I believe that statement applies more to the vision/philosophy of our projects. A professor once recommended us to set ourselves an unreachable goal to keep driving your project/company/employees forward towards a common goal. They gave us an example of Bimbo –a Mexican food industry company– that states as its philosophy: "Feed, delight and serve our world, this is our philosophy." They'll never really be able to feed the entire world but they're sure as hell going for it. Though whether a such big corporation's real interest is doing so is another discussion altogether. Even if that was their original intention.

I read this article and think about my goals to become a Game Developer. I take the advice of setting expectations for a couple of years down the road as a way to keep learning and investing the time that's required to become what I wish to become. I shouldn't be naive to apply this to a particular game project at the earlier stages of my career. In my case I should take on multiple projects that will broaden my knowledge regarding game design, architecture, project management, etc.

Article gave me much more to think about than I though it would.