The real sysadmin is like the old-fashioned car mechanic, the one you brought your car to adjust the wheels’ convergence and when you got into his garage he heard also your engine while idling didn’t have the right RPM. He then fixed the wheels’ convergence and you paid him for it, but he also fixed the engine idling RPM without asking you anything - he did it because he couldn’t stand a car that was not set up properly.
He is the one that from every tiny and imperceptible noise immediately guessed every car problem, even those the customer did not yet realize.
He is the one that after dinner with family went back to his garage, where you could see the lights on until late at night, because he was working on “his” jewel, some old vintage car found who knows where that he was slowly and passionately rejuvenating until it became like new.
The real sysadmin is like that mechanic, and his cars are servers.
Source: Veteran Unix Admins