Divorced CCIE agrees with you. (Score 1)

I agree with you 100%, and it's all about personality type. I just finished high school, and jumped right into working for an ISP in Ontario, Canada. I met a girl, had a child, and was married, all before I was 21. For the next 3 years I would study Cisco certifications and eventually was awarded CCIE #11021 in Janurary 2003. Since I had finished studying, I decided to start my own business in addition to my dayjob. I spent a year coding and wiring the business, and it was a success. The Business was fully automated and ran itself. Great. I had a CCIE, was a network engineer for a great company, I had my own thriving business. All the while, I was on call for both companies 24/7. I was a success - or was I? Well just newly successful, I was ready to enjoy some free time with my wife and two children, but it seemed that we had drifted apart. She had her own new social life, of which I didn't seem to fit in, and I went a bit crazy. She eventually asked me to leave, and so I did. I've been separated for almost 2 years now. I've sold my Business, and am just directing my energy to my day job, and trying hard to keep my spirits up. I pay a fortune in spousal & child support, and can barely afford my own car and appartement. Maybe it has something to do with the sort of people that are successful in IT. We're incredibly smart - mathematically, and technically, but we seem to have no common sense. I guess I would have been better off paying more attention to selecting a the right wife, rather than the right career. I've caused large networks to crash spectacularily, and I've learned a lot by putting them back together more efficient and robust than they were before. However, when all is said and done, computer programmers learn by making mistakes. We're high energy risk takers and problem solvers. We shouldn't expect our family life be an excpetion to this. Just learn from the mistakes, and build it better the next time.