26) Do you really want to be working for someone else? A smart friend of mine once told me, when you're an employee you are generating wealth for someone else, when you're an entrepreneur you are generating your own wealth.
And taking your own risk. I know the crowd here (hacker/entrepreneur) doesn't always think this way, but many (most?) people don't live to build wealth and influence and instead just work for an income that allows them to play in their spare time.
If your tolerance for risk is low (for example because you have a family to support) join a startup as one of the early employees, you still get a percentage of the wealth you generate and have almost all of the "security" of working for an established company.
It will also help you build the skills you'll need if one day you'll decide to build something of your own. I followed this path, and it was awesome for me.
I call it a startup apprenticeship program, find an entrepreneur you admire and believe you can learn a lot from, and join his company early on.
I've done a bunch of these job interviews lately, and if you want to "work for the man", this advice is spot on. At the same time, this is also relevant to entrepreneurs, because you'll (hopefully) be recruiting employees at some point. It always makes you a better interviewer/interviewee if you've been on the other side of the table.
26) Do you really want to be working for someone else? A smart friend of mine once told me, when you're an employee you are generating wealth for someone else, when you're an entrepreneur you are generating your own wealth.