I have a family and children, they like to eat and wear clothes as well, often they do both at the same time.
I got started on a project but was unable to hang on long enough to make any revenue, so I licensed the code to a company that I do a lot of work for, they pay me to work on the code and they let me keep what I make.
This means that over time I have been able to improve my product, without an investor, I have not always been able to work on exactly what I wanted with it but everything has been useful. I am now ready to give producing an income a shot again and I am pretty sure I will make it this time around.