What price do you have to pay for your dreams?

What price do you have to pay for your dreams, especially when they are linked to someone else’s', we all have our own individual dreams and aspirations but what happens when you get married, you might be willing to take a chance with your life, but are you willing to take a chance with the other person's life. So often we take the other person for granted, he/she becomes a mute spectator in the process. When things are going fine nobody questions it, and then things fall apart, you lose money, you chalk up debts, you run around for loans, look for collateral, always searching for that one deal that will make things right. And at what point do you say that's enough, I have made a mistake and I failed. As always i just have questions with no answers.
It's a depressing post but it happened to an ex office colleague, he's badly in debt, his wife is threatening to divorce him and he tells me that this has happened because he wanted to pursue his dreams. It’s ironic, since this just what I have been writing about follow your dreams and that’s what’s brought me to this question.