[misstercool]

Well, to be honest, I have never heard any of many FAANG turned startup founder friends told me that the want to build a life style business from the beginning. Every one wants to build a vc-backed startup with a home run idea. Many of them ended up building life style business because the markets of their ideas were actually much smaller.

If you do the math, climbing the corporate ladder at FAANG might have better ROI than running life style business. Of course, money is not the only consideration in life.

[mtlynch]

Yeah, I agree financial ROI is definitely higher in a FAANG, especially the last five years.

I'm still glad that I left when I did, as I value autonomy a lot, so being able to choose what to do every day is worth a lot to me.