[mindcrime]

To back up your point, in what world is having a good job, nice house, and large retirement savings "mediocre"? reply

When you come from the country club life (first paragraph) it is indeed mediocre.

I would consider that mediocre as well, and I grew up about as far from "country club" life as you can get. As in, dirt-poor, below-the-poverty-line, white-trash from rural southeastern NC.

Of course, some of that is that we constantly raise the bar for ourselves (well, I do anyway). Maybe the scenario above would have sounded like heaven to me when I was 20, but it doesn't now. Just the "job" part gives me the creeps. I, for one, don't want a traditional "job" at all. My standard of the line between mediocre life and successful life involves a big element of being able to control my own fate to a greater degree, and some ability to call my own shots. Translated, that means running a company I own, not working for somebody else.

The OP seems to have a lot of priorities out of whack.

Meh. Who are we to judge? A person's priorities are their priorities... there is no "right" or "wrong" on this.

[mathattack]

I would argue that having your own company just shifts the control from your boss to your customers. The one difference is you now have more control over resources.

[AnIrishDuck]

My dad, the sole attorney in his private practice firm, put it this way: "When you work a job, you have one boss. When you own a company, you have hundreds."

[mindcrime]

I would argue that having your own company just shifts the control from your boss to your customers.

Absolutely. But, personally, I would find that preferable. There's a big difference from having to be accountable and responsive to "the market" in the aggregate (and especially when you consider that you can "fire" a bad customer) and having a "boss" - one individual who has you under his/her thumb and can unilaterally order you around.