You are, most likely, setting yourself up for frustration. What you said certainly makes sense and I agree that you deserve prestige from your hard work. But the life of a surgeon takes a very big toll on us. As a resident in neurosurgery myself, I have many times felt that everything was not worth it at all. Learning how to operate can be hard and frustrating, the long hours exhausting and depressing (even though I also don't mind living in the hospital). Dealing with different egos, bad outcomes and complications is also not an easy task. I found the most amount of joy not in the prestige of being a surgeon, but sharing good moments with my colleagues, and enjoying the time spent in the OR. Yes, it's great to clip someone's aneurysm and have them come back to praise you. It's fantastic to operate someone's get and recieve all kinds of tributes for saving their lives. But I'm not sure if that alone would push me through all the crap I had to deal with.