There's a lot of weird conventional wisdom that is all based around the hypothetical VC lottery ideal: grow a business from nothing into a multi-billion dollar

There's a lot of weird conventional wisdom that is all based around the hypothetical VC lottery ideal: grow a business from nothing into a multi-billion dollar "unicorn" in a handful of years, and reap massive RoI for the investors in the process. This is great if you're a VC investor but it's often harmful for everyone else. You don't need a billion dollar startup to be financially secure or to have a robust and rapidly growing business.