If I give up on this, I'm not sure I'd want to do it again. I don't know what I'd do differently. Building an app and all the non-programming junk that goes into running a business is just a lot. I could rise the corporate ladder. I'd be fine but never rich.
Working at a corporation and making a reasonable engineer's salary will make you basically rich. Not like rule-the-world rich, but rich enough to do anything you ever wanted, which I think is pretty much as rich as anybody needs to be.
I'm experiencing this now since I've been doing both for awhile now. It's enough to not worry whether or not I should buy that $10 beer with my dinner but not enough that I don't have to debate with myself if I should be ordering 2 or 3 of those $18 cocktails every day on my first ever euro trip. Not a bad life for sure but there's quite a few things that still feel out of reach. Like private jets or even just first class
Engineering at a much more mature company. It won’t make me rich (especially considering the stock’s dreary trajectory since 2021) but it’s a lot less depressing nevertheless.