Thank you man!
So, for my whole life I've been mostly self-taught, not really "formal training" as you would call it. But what I did do to train my voice was a lot of experimentation, a lot of trial and error of what worked and what didn't and I am STILL in that process. I always wanted to do hard songs from the get go, and some where just not possible at the time, but I still did what I could with them, because not only did it help me become a better singer, it helped my musicality grow as well, to find different ways to sing a song, but always carrying the same message which I feel is essential in singing.
Hell no, I sucked when I was starting. Everyone does, I've probably worked on most problems people have here. Usually to practice something I lack, I pick a song that has a lot that which I don't have. And I practice it until I have it, other people may do scales. But I feel it's a waste of time unless you are having trouble with pitch, then they help. Because in my opinion you're not really going to sing scales in front of a crowd, you're gonna be doing songs and I just prefer to build up my experience singing songs and not have to worry of doing scales and then applying that to singing. But that's just my thinking because I am self-taught, a voice teacher would probably say otherwise, but that is just what helped me.