I co-founded a consultancy in my late 20's, it ran for 15 years until I shut it down. I'm now an IC doing work for international juggernaut megacorp but am in

I co-founded a consultancy in my late 20's, it ran for 15 years until I shut it down. I'm now an IC doing work for international juggernaut megacorp but am in my domain and am able to focus on what I'm doing while also observing how the rest of the world works (or doesn't). Working for yourself frequently means working by yourself to start, spending most of your time solving problems outside of expertise until you've built a team that can do that for you...then you realize you're working for that team. To the extent that you're successful the size of that team continues to grow and grow until it starts to include folks that really don't give a fuck about your dreams or vision or product beyond how it translates to their profit. This isn't really freedom either. You're like a queen bee...it looks like you call the shots but the reality if you don't keep laying eggs you'll have the pleasure of seeing your successor being groomed with great care until you're ejected from the hive. I love shilling this clip from Lex Fridman's podcast with Stephen Schwarzman, it's a good listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdt4PPY09rQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdt4PPY09rQ