It's our mothers. There's a Jewish joke that goes "Every Jewish mother wants her son to grow up to be a doctor. If he's a bit stupid, a lawyer. If he's completley retarded, she'll settle for accountant."
Lots of social pressure to be a professional. That's all it is. That, and a high social value placed on academic excellence and hair-splitting. ;)
I have noticed the striving for achievement and acceptance and sometimes wondered if it was the result of a conditioned inferiority complex because the whole world seemed determine to kill them through the years.