When I was old enough to have some experience and felt like I knew what I was doing but not quite as old as I am now I had an idealized notion of self-employment. Mostly because of the flexibility I imagined it would provide, partly because of ego. It took some dabbling and dealing with horrible clients before coming to the realization that self employment and employment are really two sides of the same coin. The goal if you want true flexibility and freedom should be to put yourself in a situation where you are no longer dependent on selling your time for money as your source of income.
Now whenever someone asks if I want to do contract work for them I remind myself that I don't want to be in the business of selling my time for money.
Now whenever someone asks if I want to do contract work for them I remind myself that I don't want to be in the business of selling my time for money.