In hindsight, I do wish my own venture had always remained "side work" — as it was during my IBEW apprenticeship. As a full-time endeavor, this article absolutely speaks Truth ["that manager is YOU — and they're a terrible boss"].

Entrepreneurship isn't for most people, and although I've made most of dollars on 1099... I wouldn't choose so again. I've taken several years "re-grouping" as I try to determine what next... and fortunately still have one client that pays my bills (and enough savings from decade-old investments) and am not too worried financially.

I haven't had health insurance since leaving the union (a decade ago), and am definitely not getting any younger. The things I have done to keep an ungrateful client happy... aren't worth discussing (but I have learned so much).

Hopeful that when this administration ends our economy can pick back up and I can find a decent master/employer. I will be more grateful than most.

Good article, Mr. Unise.

What a great way of putting it. Especially with survivorship bias tending to highlight the cases that make it over that margin hurdle

> You don’t hear much from the ones who went back to traditional employment after three years of grinding, a depleted savings account, and a marriage that got stress-tested past its limits.

Check, check and nearly check. It was a choice between having a business and having a marriage. Easy choice in hindsight.

You can break up, or you can have a thousand fights. Why would you have a thousand fights? Well, so you can make peace. Having my own business, incidentally with my spouse, was the perfect conduit for those thousand fights. Holy hell in a handbasket. But: I've gotten to know them in a way I don't think I'd ever have reached without the business. I wouldn't change a thing. Except maybe getting a clue at the three year mark that this wasn't going to work instead of grimly hanging on to a dying dream for seven years.

When you’re valuable in a certain position at a company, trying to grow beyond it is like swimming upstream in a raging current. The pigeonholing that happens when you work for a big company is not to be underestimated.

It's more like an occupation

This is a observation, not a judgment.

(That would be another one: "This is a Foo, not a Bar")