Maybe he's a helicopter mechanic or a million other things you can't just do at home.

Most of the things I love aren't done at home. I already noted there are passions that can't be performed individually.

Go buy 40 acres in the desert and live your dream.

If a very expensive hobby is a lot of work are you working or retired?

Unless it comes with a fleet of helicopters to play with, I don't see how that's helpful.

Or, you know, you're a specialist who worked their way into a career at anything that produces hardware. Philips, Samsung, heaven forbid you work for a larger corporation, how many of those people can there possibly be, right?

You have won. Yes, if the thing you love specifically requires the collection of capital then of course, you will have difficulty finding that outside a corporation.

I suspect with analysis this is not the case for the majority of folks.

Hardware is a funny example though, because I feel it's easier than ever to get some interesting hardware stuff going.