Being persistent and being consistent are two very important things in life. It's difficult to do either when you're not getting a lot of good feedback though. I know I didn't get a lot of good feedback, and it affected me in a lot of bad ways since I don't have much of a support system. I read Stephen King's book on writing a few years back and he said in that book... it wasn't for his wife Tabitha he didn't think he would have been able to complete some of his works. So without her, he wouldn't have been able to persist. It's an interesting concept... but you're right if you want to make it in anything you need to be persistent.