@sirus's stupid comic
If you judge your own life based on how you relate to others, as if it were some competition to be "won" or "lost," then you're very very likely dooming yourself to "failure." Only so many people can end up on top after all, and the odds are very much stacked against you. If only those on top have had "successful" lives, then we're dooming absolutely everyone else to a failed life, regardless of how hard they worked, how smart they are, what they did, who they are, etc etc.
So I reject the notion that being stuck in a dead-end job is "failure," at least intrinsically. It's only a failure if your life goal is a high paying job (and might I add that that isn't the most fulfilling way to spend one's life). Also, $35,000 a year puts one way WAY above the global average (~10,000 median, ~3000 mean iirc), so if we're still stuck in comparison mode you can comfort yourself that you're "better" than much of the world's population.
So allow me to say: suck it up and realize there's more to life than career success or notoriety. Way more. You don't have to end up in the history books. You don't have to "make your mark" on the world. Your life's success or failure depends on whether you accomplished the goals you set out to do, not what other people expect of you. What others define as "worthy" life goals are not applicable to you, at all, unless you let them be.
What I know of Salmongod's life brings me to the conclusion that he's spent it quite wisely and respectably, for example, despite not having monetary success and being stuck in a crappy job.