The parents push their kids to do that kind of stuff because it will make them wealthy and they will have prestigious titles. That doesn't mean it is the path to happiness. I think it is working out like shit for all the kids who listened to their parents advice.

Background: I lived in NYC and am friends with far too many lawyers and wall street bankers with no idea why they are a banker or a lawyer.

Almost without fail, I was happier than every single one of them, even though they made twice or more of my salary every year.

They work more hours than us in the startup world. We boast about that phase of living at the office and falling asleep at our desk, but at least that war story is half made up and is supposed to end. That's what they do forever.

I have a friend. He is 32, a laywer at a corporate law firm. He is not a partner at the firm. He works rediculous hours, often up till 2am on weekends. He works those hours becuase if he doesn't, he will be fired. He doesn't like his job, his boss, his company, or even being a lawyer. But he is working 60+ hours a week because without it he'll lose his $200k a year job. And most of that money goes to paying for his great penthouse apartment. When I graduated college he gave me the advice "whatever you do, save as much money as you can so you can go and do whatever you want if you find out you don't like your career" with the seriousness and tone of a kidnapping victim.

A lot of weekends, I come into the office and work. But I roll in at 1 and leave at 8pm, after I had the morning off. My banker friends have conference calls with their boss at 8am on a Sunday the night after we went out. It sucks!

All of those guys (and girls) make double what I do. But at the end of the day I'm not sure they put more money in the bank. Their echo chamber values things that ours simply doesn't. We love people making it to be ramen profitable. They think you are a loser if you don't have a BMW, a real rolex, go to bottle clubs on the weekends to drop $300 at a bar, and have a $3000 a month apartment somewhere in the city. I spent half of that, and do basically the exact same things except with a Subaru, a regular bar, and a $1400 a month apartment.

At least the doctors have rewarding work most of the time.

But I would tell my kids to be an engineer, or a freaking high school teacher, or a circus juggler, long before I told them to try and work on wall street or be a lawyer.

You can buy a lot of material goods with their inflated salaries, but I have yet to find one that was actually happy with their job or their life. So they strive to become partner at the firm or a big enough bonus that they could leave and do something less stressful. But when they finally get there, then they raise the bar yet again and sucked back in for a few more years. It looks unbearable.

If I could tell my kids to do anything, it would to do what you are doing. Own a business that you can run from anywhere and be your own boss. You probably won't make as much money as working for Goldman, but if you want to surf you can setup shop next to the beach in hawaii and start the day with 2 hours on the beach and work the rest. If you like skiing, move to the mountains and do the same. If you want to travel, pack your laptop and spend half of each day working and half exploring. I imagine you are infinitely happier than people making 5x as much doing the grind in those fields.

[Edited the horribly rambling mess into a rambling mess]