very nice post, although I just recently came across this. I find the optimal path to be very, well...optimal for me and have been doing some parts of it over time.
Step #1: i've ground up a roll of around $600ish from an initial $25 playing 2nl-20nl(the latter being a shot before my location was prohibited to play during Amaya's acquisition of Ongame, then I switched to Stars and rebuild from there with $200 playing 5 to 10nl. Had some experience playing live (lowest here is equivalent to 25nl in $ equivalent) but I don't think I'll be touching that till I can crush 25nl online at least.
Step #2: started w/ sauce & fees 6-max guide, then moved on to the uNL library and archive stickies here, just recently came across Balugawhale's Easy Game series
Step #6: had access to a few vids like Learning Kristy series and a few others, will work from there
Step #7: definitely watching for entertainment. Still not interested how Dwan won with 86o or 72o since I can barely beat 10nl atm even when rolled for 25nl
Step #8: maybe considering it once I'm crushing 25nl or higher at a decent wr, aligned with step #1
Step #12: still keeping up with univ with decent grades, currently starting my last year
Step #20: if let's say im beating the games at a decent amount of at least 2x or more of a decent monthly salary here ($500~22,596 local currency, pay is so low that even callcenter employees who are supposedly the "big earners" for an average employee have a gross pay of around 17-18k monthly), so that's around $1k plus considering the costs of wires and stuff since I'm not too keen on sending checks until our local courier services do not screw us over. So until then, a regular paying income is still best