Odds of Getting In
Your odds of getting a part here and there are pretty good—your odds of making a living doing it are admittedly less good. If you've cared to read this career profile, you probably have a dazzle of star in the back of your head. The good news is that nearly everyone struggles. You'll hear stories from breakout actors on the struggle it took to get where they are on the daily, but they made it somehow.
Did we say good news? We meant good news for them, as they made it out of the 200,000 or so actors trying to make it in Hollywood (not even counting the actors who have to deal with rejection and frigid temperatures in New York and Chicago).
For the rest of you, becoming an actor is as easy or as hard as booking your first paid job. How long that takes is up to your skill, your look, and a heaping load of good luck. But stick with it and keep pounding the streets, and hopefully you'll no longer have to live on them.