I am just joining this thread, haven't tried to read 4 pages, just skimmed it.
Here's a fine example of success despite heavy drinking, a president even:
Ulysses S. Grant. 18th president of the United States (1869-1877). His drinking seems to have been brought on by boredom. In other words, when he wasn't busy, he drank. It did interfere with his work enough that he was relieved of his military duties in 1854. The Civil War came along and his drinking lessened, but did not stop. He drank, but continued to function, throughout the Civil War, emerging a hero. Voted to the presidency in 1868, he died shortly after his second term of throat cancer.