A colleague recently gave me a few of his old Aquacorps issues to read and I came across some very sage advice from Sheck Exley:
It rings as true today as it did 20 years ago.
You have to love it. You have to love the diving. Loving recognition is not enough. That wears off. That's why you see such a high instructor dropout rate. The ones that got in it because it's another merit badge and everyone around thought it was a big deal - it wears off. You see it over and over again in diving.
When I got started in diving I wanted to be special. I grew out of that and got to where I just loved diving, and that's what has kept me going. If I hadn't, I would have quit a long time ago.
It rings as true today as it did 20 years ago.