You know that feeling? Working endless hours, grinding hard, barely getting breathed on by your boss. I'd take building something on my own—pulling 100-hour weeks, making $90K—over a comfortable $120K salary somewhere else. Sounds crazy, right? But here's the thing: when it's yours, every win hits different. No politics, no middleman taking a cut of your effort, just pure output equals pure reward. The crypto community gets this on a deeper level. We've all seen what happens when you actually own your work. Yeah, the hours are brutal and the money might be tighter at first. But you're not trading your best years for someone else's vision anymore. Once you've tasted autonomy, a fat paycheck doesn't look as appetizing.