[1dom]

May I ask approximately how old you are and what field you're working in? (Or, being passionate in?)

I feel like this is not a realistic view to sustain in most modern tech environments, unless you love inefficiently producing ineffective solutions that just so happens to be profitable, or you job hop every 1 - 2 years.

[m-a-r-c-e-l]

47 now

First company with 23, sold with 33.

Second + third company founded with 36, sold at 46.

I was the software engineer in the founders team, built alot by myself, even in the last years with a tech department of 30 people.

After doing nothing for 1.5 years, I am back with a new startup, being the only developer. Because I love it, and I am good at it!

It's my passion...

[1dom]

Interesting, thanks! I feel like that kind of confirms my position: you're not someone who has the same passion for coding, you have a stronger passion for building, leading and selling tech companies, which is why you've done that multiple times.

I've never been a founding engineer, but typically a direct report to founding engineers.

The people I worked with in your position were either like you (e.g. enjoyed programming but clearly got a big rush from the business and money side too) or they were genuinely just pure passionate programmers and miserable, as their role takes them away from that.

[distances]

One option is to become a freelancer, there you usually get a new project every 6-18 months in my experience.

[1dom]

There's a whole categories of skills, abilities and problems that are never confronted if a person changes job every <2 years.

Hot take: what if the rise in enshittification and crap tech is because good tech can only be produced with the hindsight of a stable tech career from a stable tech employer?

[distances]

That's a different topic though. This was about passion in coding for living.

I don't think it's the employee's responsibility to stay in one company if the stability and in-house career path options are questionable, as usually is the case.