So just a couple anecdotes of friends of mine who have been in the industry a while:
1 Friend, started a consulting company, worked his absolute ass off, made many millions, but also maybe not a lot more than if he had worked his ass off in big tech and climbed the ranks.
Another friend started a product company, raised a seed round, worked on it for many many years paying himself peanuts, eventually had to take a job at a big tech company for a few years and his side business was part time, then quit big tech to focus on it again, acquihired after 8 years. Now he gets to work on his project and get paid a decent amount by some mid tier tech company, so he's happy.
Financially, not the optimal move, but he loves working on his own ideas, and I think he's happy about that.
1 Friend, started a consulting company, worked his absolute ass off, made many millions, but also maybe not a lot more than if he had worked his ass off in big tech and climbed the ranks.
Another friend started a product company, raised a seed round, worked on it for many many years paying himself peanuts, eventually had to take a job at a big tech company for a few years and his side business was part time, then quit big tech to focus on it again, acquihired after 8 years. Now he gets to work on his project and get paid a decent amount by some mid tier tech company, so he's happy.
Financially, not the optimal move, but he loves working on his own ideas, and I think he's happy about that.