What is --actually-- motivating you to stay? I was hired, by a friend of a friend, to build a website. I was told "prototype", MVP, "ad supported".. "we'll fin

What is --actually-- motivating you to stay? I was hired, by a friend of a friend, to build a website. I was told "prototype", MVP, "ad supported".. "we'll find investors". As a contractor, fine, just pay me. 4 years later, after a customer threatened to sue for being defrauded, I finely wised up. I had been strung along with late payments for 4 years, the work kept piling up, I begged for help (it was just me doing all the technical work)... and the wife of the CEO let it slip they were doing 6 figures in revenue. I had gotten so obsessed with the work, that I fell into my OCD and did not pay attention to the business side of my "business". 4 years of near-burnout... and the guy who introduced me to this £$%£% finally decided to tell me he knew for a fact the CEO had a history of criminal behavior (i.e. fraud). It was a harsh lesson in my blindspots. I learned a lot from a personal angle but it cost me 6 years of my life (to recover from the burnout as well). I got at the root of my OCD like behavior though. I was the same way - just a little more work, it'll all be over, the money, money, get all the invoices paid and quit... but it took a real crisis to slap me upside the head. Not to say your founders are psychopaths, but look at it from their POV. You're just the hired help. It's not profitable to make you happy from a monetary perspective and you aren't taking advantage of the power you may not know you have (my biggest mistake). If you're in business with someone, ruthlessness, however polite, is the only option (the CEO a year after I quit, -abandoned- his family and now is in a big legal battle with his wife who funded the company). Ruthlessness is sometimes the only way to get respect from people, and I infer this may be part of your problem. -- But I may be projecting my issues onto your situation -- So that is why I ask - what are the possible deeper psychological issues that are keeping you stuck? I know this inner conflict you speak of very well, and until I really understood the fundamental reasons why I put up with all the shit, I drove myself crazy. hope this helps...