I have been involved with planes for a very long time.  It takes a lot of work to get your license. In the end, it is very worth it to fly. There is a lot of money involved with flying too. It will cost around $10,000 to get your private pilot license. 

Flying an aircraft is more than pushing random buttons and moving the yoke. A common misconception is that pilots do not know what most buttons do in the plane. That could not be farther from the truth. When starting an aircraft there are checklists and flows you have to follow. But before doing the flying on your own, you have to be trusted by your instructor to do these things. That may take a few months of flying. 

You also have to get a student pilot certificate and your medical. These documents allow you to do your solo flight. After your solo flight is a cross-country solo flight. This is a flight that is 50 nautical miles or more. You have to pass a check ride and some other tests that go along with getting your license. 

After getting your license, you can take it to the next step. Most people will get their instrument rating and this will allow them to fly in the clouds. This takes a lot of work and some people would say it is the hardest rating to get. After this, there are other things you can do to work your way up to where you would like to get to. Some people go the commercial route and some stop there. Most people think that commercial flying means being part of an airline, but it is just allowing you to make money from flying. Some people will go on to get their multi-engine rating. This allows them to fly planes with multiple engines without an instructor. This is a great step to going to an airline. With all of these ratings, all you need now is your ATP license. ATP stands for Airline Transport Pilot. Most airlines will pay you to get this rating. My instructor told me not to get my ATP license at a flight school and to do it at an airline. This is the cheapest way to do it.