You do not become a critic until it has been completely established to your own satisfaction that you cannot be a poet.
For me, I go in and play a few Christian songs for an audience, and now I have people come up and not tell me I'm great, but tell me that my music is helping save their lives, helping them in the Lord, and helping them end their vices.
The success my children have had has helped me immensely. I've showed them a certain respect for this career.