If I had it to do over again I would have never gotten my instructor cert and just focused on the diving that I enjoy the most. However now that I have my instructor cert (since 2012) I am NOT letting go of it until I either reach the level to teach what I want/enjoy or decide that I've spent to much $$ on renewals. If I could teach two cavern classes a year and only teach sidemount classes the rest of the time I would be a happy diver.I was a PADI pro, had boatloads of cards. I wasn't a card collector, but I was always hungry for more skills. I never paid the fee for MSD. MSD does nothing for picking up specialties.
If I were to do things over again, I would have taken GUE fundies after OW and be done with it. T1 in place of AOW and a slew of others.
I think that's the best sequence of courses a diver can take. Just 3 courses.