Would folks rather make 70k per year working in their own small profitable software product company (either alone or with a partner) or 100k working for a large

Would folks rather make 70k per year working in their own small profitable software product company (either alone or with a partner) or 100k working for a large software company as a Sr. Software Engineer? What about 60k? I'd happily trade the 30k for complete control of my time and decision making. In your own business 70k could turn into 200k (or more) in profit. That's a pretty unlikely pay jump for a Sr. Dev. Switching to a middle management job e.g. dev manager, dev lead etc. doesn't guarantee a huge pay increase either. There are people that make a big salary in tech. It's not impossible but it's tough. It also goes away the second you stop working. Of course your own company could flop. That's a real risk. If it does you've suffered some opportunity cost but hopefully you've learned a lot and had some fun. Another plus to starting your own gig is that if you figure out how to do it once you're more likely to be able to do it again. Known how to create value people will pay for is an empowering feeling. I'm not against shooting for the stars and raising money. I think it's worth it if you have an idea that you are die on the hill passionate about and that has the right scale factors. What do you do in the mean time if you don't have that idea? If you don't then shooting for a single that gives you more control of your life and the potential for more upside seems like it's worth the risk. Who know maybe it will turn into a double. This is the path I've taken. I'm often surprised there isn't more talk about this topic and the trade offs between home run swing vs lifestyle business vs. job. I don't think lifestyle businesses and the strategies to make them happen get enough play. I think the current environment is ripe for more software devs to follow this path vs. a job.