It is definitely possible. I know of a number of people who have done exactly this. In addition to learning the basics with Trailhead, I'd also suggest looking

It is definitely possible. I know of a number of people who have done exactly this. In addition to learning the basics with Trailhead, I'd also suggest looking near by for a Salesforce developer group. There is even StackExchange for Salesforce that is completely community driven for having questions answered. (salesforce.stackexchange.com). FYI, I'm another one of the devrel team at Salesforce. Dave went on vacation just before you posted this. Cheers.