Hi Marilyn:
Everyone just starts at some point so please don't feel intimidated. If others create an environment that feels 'snobby,' that is their own insecurities. I started my career years ago, but then had to stop for several family related reasons (when it rains it pours!), so I'm finally re-starting. 
The first time I launched my career by showing work all over - restaurants, hospitals, shops with a bit of gallery space on the side.I eventually ended up with gallery shows also. I got rejected from all the juried shows. Then I created a fundraiser for an organization - a limited edition print where a percent of proceeds went to the organization. The edition was 950. The prints sold for $85 and each time I sold one the organization received $5. That was written up in Art Business News, the organization's publication and about 3 other magazines. (I made those articles appear by writing press releases and sending them to the right editors). That worked. A gallery contacted me - from another state - and sold several prints. They offered me a show. And members of the organization from Puerto Rico and Japan as well as the US purchased prints. Although I wasn't making money yet I was beginning to build momentum and relationships.
I did attend an art school. It was a nightmare and I left at the end of one quarter!! The teachers were horrified that they might be creating competition. And they believed in 'high art' worth being snobs about (I still don't get it.)The story's on my blog at http://barbaraferrier.blogspot.com For years I didn't trust anyone in that field who put 'high art' on a pedestal. It seems to give them permission to be abusive to other people.
One day I realized that everyone's career exists in a vacuum. You build relationships with your collectors, with the press, with anyone you want or need to work with, ideally in a way that helps your painting thrive and makes you feel like you're making a contribution.
It feels like you're starting for a very long time, even when you have irons in the fire. So you need to make peace with your goals and not worry about other people's goals. Think of it like writing styles. The writer of a statistics book and a poet have the same job title - writer. Is it reasonable for the poet's sales rep to disparage the work of the statistician or vice versa? Happens in 'art' every day. I had a conversation the other day with the director of an artist's support organization (people who help you secure grants, insurance, etc.) As I described my work and goals he became slightly cold and asked - in that tone - if I was 'just' making a product. I felt like saying Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol's work is a product also - and their recognition of that fact is why they succeeded. I said nothing. I learned he doesn't have the time or money to produce his own work. But if he did it would be 'real' art. Art myths that prevent success are the mainstay of many art schools - he probably had a masters.
I also recommend "Art and Fear." The authors have wonderful BS detectors. I laughed my way through it because they nailed a lot.
I wish you the best of good fortune,
Barbara
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