Are there any actual professionals here?

I work in a professional venue as a technician, get paid for what I do and work on professionally produced shows.. however I still don't consider myself a 'professional.' I varies from department to department in the theatre industry. I'll, personally, be learning for the rest of my life and hopefully continuing to earn money from it. There are people who do a lot of work in amateur theatre and are not getting paid whose work is above and beyond some of the standards I have seen in professional theatre. A big difference between amateur and pro theatre is the existence of open discussion. There are heaps of websites out there for am-theatre, heaps of forum discussions, resources etc. Whereas, pro theatre requires a lot of digging and probing, secret industry connections, shoulder rubbing and you almost get further in the industry by not saying much at all and just doing your job. My 2 cents.