I don't consider this to sound or be entitled or self-centered, the difference between being a founder and an employee is immense. There is definitely no reas

I don't consider this to sound or be entitled or self-centered, the difference between being a founder and an employee is immense. There is definitely no reason here to hate yourself or where you are, just need to take a step back and think it over and find a plan that makes sense for you. Depression is real, don't ignore it or let it define you. My 20+ year career has been a bit unorthodox in that I started in family businesses, moved on to Fortune 10, then to small business and then into startups starting as employee then founder and now back to employee. Before I became an employee after having my own startups I had to figure out what I wanted to do, and where I was mentally. I had exited reasonably successfully from two of the few startups I had in the past 10 years, so it was mainly about what do I want to do next. For me, I saw being an employee as a bit of a break, although knowing me I know it won't last. Something that is more obvious to me today, after having been an employee again for almost 4 years now, is that being an employee can be just as hard as being a founder, just in different ways. In the end, there are people that just are not cut out to be good employees, but make great founders (and vice-versa). If that's you then great, just set yourself up and get to it. If you are neither a good/great founder and struggling at being a decent employee then most likely you need some self reflection and reasonable expectation setting. I have run into a number of people that sucked as employees, thought they would be good as founders and bombed there too only to blame everything but the facts. But even for those people there are solutions, they just have to recognize the issue and start working on it (easier said than done of course). I don't 100% believe in the "find your passion and you'll find happiness forever" stuff. But I do believe if you dislike what you are doing for enough days in a row you need to find a solution and make some changes. In some cases that solution might take 3-6 months more of grinding it out to set yourself up, but that is being a responsible adult. Not saying you aren't, just sharing that we all go through it and it does suck (and can be depressing), but I just see it as no one is immune from being human. Good luck!