But once you close the cockpit door, all that ground BS leaves. You get paid to sit in line and watch airplanes takeoff and land for hours. Then, it is your turn, you add power, get up around 100 MPH, pull back on the steering wheel, and the most amazing thing happens, most of the time. A week goes by and you've spent 20-30 hours in the air, time that can not be deducted from someone's lifespan. Sure, you've also spent 20-90 hours on the ground away from home sitting in airports, again, watching airplanes land and takeoff.

If it's about the money, you'll never be happy. No career is safe. No job is safe. Unless you own the company, you can be laid off at any time. If you own the company, you're always out chasing a thousand bosses, would-be customers.

Some haven't saved enough to survive the furloughs and downturns. Some buy expensive kids, wives, husbands, and so on. They are intolerant of the years of poverty it takes to get ahead in the industry, forgetting that doctors, lawyers, and many other occupations do the same. They also are focused on themselves, wanting instant gratification for themselves, so what if the other is miserable. It's probably why the divorce rate is so high.

If I haven't made it to a major by 65, then I know that path was not for me. I've two years left before my goal of making a million by age 35. Only a few times I've regretting having to get up and go to work, and that had nothing to do with airlines.

Go with your head held high, you tried and decided it was not for you. Nothing is wrong with that. Go to the next job and work it, enjoy it. It's the journey, not the destination.