I'm glad I quit drinking a long time ago, and I'm glad I quit the firm where I was working and started my own 30 years ago last month.

I have said for many years I'd rather be a big fish in a small pond than a small fish in a big pond. I don't have the character flaws required to feed the desire to be a big fish in a big pond.

This story, so well told like all your writing, is what happens to most everyone who is not a big fish in the big pond. Not necessarily alcoholism, but being chewed up in a dog-eat-dog system.