Science these days is mostly done in institutions of higher learning, where 1) it is a pretty rigid process with slightly counter productive incentives (publish papers! Any papers!), and 2) it is available only to a select few who've made it through a rigid and ivory-tower-esque formula (i.e. the universities themselves).

I think that's a big problem, and one that makes the self esteem issue worse (if you don't fit the formula, you'll feel inferior).

I always wanted to be a scientist, but then gravitated towards entrepreneurship because it's less rigid and defined.