No, it's really not this bad. I "sell my time" for a living and I frakkin' love it. I work with really talented people I respect and love, working on interestin

No, it's really not this bad. I "sell my time" for a living and I frakkin' love it. I work with really talented people I respect and love, working on interesting products that I like, with little to no bullshittery. It's not like this everywhere, but these spots in the industry exist, and if you're halfway decent at what you do, they will want you also. As rayiner said also, entrepreneurship is also "selling your time" - you're just trying to sell it at a very high price with no guarantee that anyone will end up paying you for that time. There is also no guarantee in entrepreneurship that you'll spend a substantial portion of your time doing things you enjoy. A lot of startup life is thankless toil. Putting together a startup is a lot more than writing some code and slapping together some designs - as a founder you will go neck-deep in territory you do not enjoy, whether that's sales, marketing, business development, design, or something else.