jonathanleger - 12:55 am on Jul 30, 2012 (gmt 0)

No way I'd ever go back to working for somebody else. I'm a software developer, and my bosses never had any clue what they were talking about. The sales people always promised things that were next to impossible to deliver, and although being the prime money earners of the companies, the developers' pay never reflected that.

Thanks to working for myself, I haven't missed a single important event in the lives of my two small children.

Thanks to working for myself, I was able to give my oldest daughter and son in law a house as a wedding present.

Thanks to working for myself, I've been able to travel the world.

On top of those things, I've been able to give 40+ people the kind of jobs that I would have dreamed of having. They work from home (or wherever they want to). As long as they do the required work on time and do it well, they can set their own schedules. I never have to check in on them because they never fail to do what they're supposed to. On the rare occasion where they did, I was always notified in advance by the employee of what was going on -- and they always made up the work.

I've also been able to raise a lot of money for causes I believe in, from saving a local museum to helping some congregations that do good things for people to a Kiva group that's at over $55k in loans so far.

I'm not saying these things to brag. I just know that none of these things would have been possible if I was working for somebody else.

Need more socialization? Get out of the house every day.

Gotten bored with your current site? Use the revenue from the current one to build another one -- or two, or three -- in topics that you're interested in.

If it's what you really want, hey, to each their own. But seriously, I'll never go back to working for somebody else.

Just being able to go to a movie in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week when all the kids are in school... Sorry, but I just can't give that up. :)

Oh, one last thing. Don't kid yourself into thinking being an employee is more "stable" -- for most corporations you're just an expense they hope they can cut someday. And they will as soon as possible.

My 2c.