So I'm not terribly old yet (37) but I'm a manager for the last 2 years. I'm on the fence about the whole issue. At my root I'm a builder, I love it and really

So I'm not terribly old yet (37) but I'm a manager for the last 2 years. I'm on the fence about the whole issue. At my root I'm a builder, I love it and really would never leave that. That said, I've had a lot of REALLY bad managers and I know that I can do it better. I love leading my team. It's amazing and thrilling to be able to tune the situation and work being done to benefit everyone involved to the maximum that the situation allows. Then comes the downside. Dealing with the other managers and the higher level business people. Some days, maybe even most days, it makes me miserable. I loathe it. So much self interest and political games. The really bad situation is that I work for a company that is actually really tame with that kind of thing. It's just the nature of the beast once you start up the chain. Honestly I don't think it holds a future for me. At some point I'm moving to starting my own company... again or trying to turn my manager role into an architect/CTO type role or even more likely going back to being a lead developer. I don't regret it because I know what it is and that I can answer that bell when I need to. I just don't want to anymore.