Thank you for the realistic and down to earth reply , your opinion was definitely refreshing . Certainly , if I ' ve learned anything from asking around , it ' s that becoming a researcher is extremely difficult and requires an unbelievable stoic perseverance . I believe it ' s more or less doable and if everybody gives up merely because the odds are daunting then who will be the ones moving humanity forward ? Somebody ' s gotta do it , and I ' m willing to sacrafice a few years of my life to accomplish the goal of expounding and expanding the human conception of what is achievable . However what resonated with me from what you said , was that going down that road will break marriages . You certainly nailed that one . I don ' t care if I have to live in a crappy apartment for a few years , I don ' t care if I must work hard , and I don ' t care if I fail . Thats part of life . Albeit , what I do care about is getting loved ones involved . So if you have or were to go down that route what would you have personally done to mitigate the collateral damage ?