Requesting some advice from hackers

I work for a big multi national software company as a tech lead.I have about 7 years of IT Experience.I tried a couple of years ago to move to project management , mainly motivated by the power/prestige factor plus in a big company the technical work especially in services is so boring.But I found that option too boring - eternally dealing with incompetent programmers who could never stick to a deadline.Then I decided technical line was maybe better and took an onsite assignment in US as a tech lead for a web app.It is the same old technical work which is boring now but to add to it now I see a lot of my peers going ahead of me in the rat race who pursued project management.This has kind of taken the enthusiasm out of my work Ideally I like to have everything - the power/presitge, love challenging technical work too.:-) What would be the advice from people on HN?I am guessing some of you may have also gone through this phase