You would be singing a very different tune if any of your businesses had scaled. Take a break, learn some new skills, get some creativity back and try again with a more stable financial footing.
I would argue that many teams in Big N are not meaningful, you’re just solving a smaller portion of a bigger problem. Compensation is nice but you lose the “hands on” making-a-difference feeling quickly.
The ultimate goal is to work on the things you care about, no matter if it’s for big companies or for your own. Usually I guess your own business is more relevant to your own agenda.
To answer your question, sadly yes. I thought I would be an entrepreneur at this point, but getting into big tech has made it so the risk isn’t justified by the reward for me. Most people need an higher expected reward to justify higher risk, and in expected value sense Big N and similar actually have higher expected value then entrepreneurship.
Start ups were always more hype than reality, but with the current FAANG TCs, you’re doing yourself a disservice by sticking with a su, even your own.
I have been through similar situation. I currently work for a FANG, earning north of 500k a year and still want to quit and spend full time on my business someday. I think it's not about money but about autonomy and writing your own story. You mentioned you have some small businesses. How much do you earn from them? Are you located in the bay area? If you are in the bay area it's really tough to quit your FANG job for your dream. As the opportunity cost is very high and at the same time living in Bay with 100k/year income is super super hard.
It’s any consolation ur sister just got really lucky
But in reality she probably just worked her ass off, had her priorities straight, worked towards her goals, and got the position she wanted... Sorry to ruin the consolidation.
Hmm what? So you don’t think there are good engineers who studied/worked towards there goals and don’t make TC north of 200kish? Can you be that thick?