This is what I'm currently doing:
I'm currently working as a software engineer while I earn my computer engineering degree from college, which would enable me to work as a ... software engineer.
I really enjoy my job/career. If I was a software engineer until I died, I can be happy doing that. I work with a great team and my managers are more like friends to me. They're not your stereotypical negative boss. I agree it wouldn't be as fun to work under that type of boss, though I'm sure there would be some growth opportunities in the challenge.
With that said, I do like being in charge of everything myself, and I am pursuing more self-employment opportunities. I often do freelance stuff. I've been self-employed in the past but just didn't make as much as I could in the field I'm in now.
So yeah, this is just to further illustrate that you can do both.
With that all said, it is possible to just jump ship and maybe everything will work out wonderfully. It's a risk though and not one that sounds particularly good to me. I could take all of my savings, go to Vegas, and bet it all on Black in Roulette. That could work out wonderfully too. There's a 49% chance it would, but that's not quite good enough for me.
