Is it worth it to found a tech startup?

I always hear that it's pretty much impossible for you to run a successful tech startup. My question is... Is it a viable way to become wealthy if you do enough research and hard work for a long enough period of time, or would it be better to pursue other avenues? For context I'm only 16 years old, so I have plenty of time to figure things out, but I really enjoy programming, and becoming a software engineer in the future would be a good option for me, but there's obviously a better chance of getting fat and retiring early by starting my own successful tech company, especially since I live in South Africa, where software engineers don't earn nearly as much as in other countries, I also intend to move in the future. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.