Stress
Stress? Pfft, whatevs. You got this, because you're the type of person who chooses "playing with fire" as a way to make a living. You've already got the stress thing handled, right? Well, maybe, but that attitude is likely to get you burned (see what we did there?).
Your love of explosives and adrenaline may have blinded you from the much more real and far more boring stresses in the life of a pyrotechnician. For instance, can you live from paycheck to paycheck? Many professional pyros live that way, especially during the slower seasons―if they work at all. You work more often if you lead a crew, but then your stress level is multiplied by however many volunteers showed up to eat your pizza.
What about your family, if you're even lucky enough to have one? Are you cool being away from them for fourteen-hour days, seven days a week, for months at a time? Maybe you're cool with it today, but imagine it after twenty years on the road with two kids at home and a mortgage to pay. Add to that the possibility that daddy or mommy might come home missing some digits and you start to see how stressful playing with fire can actually be.