Genuine progress stories

I'd be really interested to see any genuine progress stories to do with drawing and or art in general. I've recently started drawing and creating oil pastel art in my late '40s and I'm really curious to see how good I could potentially get with a few years of fun practise under my belt. Not that I want to become a full-time artist or anything, I'm quite happy in my professional career, I'm just curious to see people's development.

Does anyone have any really great stories of creating absolute shockers to masterpieces!!