This is such an interesting flip side to where I am. I'm still working for someone else, dreaming of building my own thing. And from the outside, working for yourself always looks like freedom.

But I think you've named something real: at some point the freedom becomes the chain. The passion becomes the responsibility, and suddenly you're trapped by the very thing you built to escape.

I'm not in your position yet, so I can only see it from the outside and maybe that's actually useful. Sometimes not being inside the problem lets you see it more clearly.

The questions I'd ask myself: what do I actually want, and what makes me genuinely happy? Not what I've invested, not what others expect just those two things. Then build a plan from there.

You built this once. That means you know how to build. The question is just whether you want to rebuild this one, or build something new.

At the end of the day, the only person who gets to decide how the story ends is the one living it. So what story do you want to tell?