I feel you, bro. I had a similar story - joined a startup when I was 26, then I joined a smaller company where I eventually became a partner, did some consulting, and now I'm working on Kiwi. Some of my friends ended up in better places financially. I was often jealous of their predictable salaries and career paths, where they knew exactly what they had to do to get to the next level. On the other hand, some of these friends complain about their jobs. That it's boring. That their bosses are assholes. Or the dread of being potentially laid off because of some company-wide cuts. And I can say many things about my career so far, but I don't remember ever being bored for more than one day. If I don't like working with someone, I can say "No" since when you work in a company, you have one client (your employer), but if you run your business, you typically have more of them. Plus, this path helped me develop agency and trust in myself. I know that if something went wrong, I'd find a way to provide for myself, even if I had to invent a job for myself. Also, I think working in crypto is a two-dimensional asymmetric bet: one is working on a startup that may or may not work out, and the second one is having alpha on the fastest-growing asset class, so if you invest well, you can actually get a juicy return.