100% agree on that. I did a lot of bad estimates and was directly affected by them (fixed rate projects that ended up driving my rate to "below mcdonalds worker

100% agree on that. I did a lot of bad estimates and was directly affected by them (fixed rate projects that ended up driving my rate to "below mcdonalds worker" and some even with "lateness discounts" because I just wanted to keep the customer happy), and it took me a lot of time to get better at estimating even if I was paying from my own pocket for all the bad estimates. Now if I am to hire a developer I will never think that "his estimates are bad because he's not directly affected by missing them"!