What you are and what you do are 2 diffrent things.Programmer is a profession not a lifestyle. I was this Outdoor Guy, I did skiing instructor in the winter and mountainbike guide in the sommer. Later on I was this Soundtec Guy, you know doing shows in diffrent towns every night. My mistake and why I failed at both in the end was because I thought this would be my life while it only was my job. And like every job there are pros and cons and when times where getting harder I failed because I couldn't think of it as my only my job but my life. We tend to romanticize our jobs, which is I think is the basic problem here.