Your story is both lovely and inspiring—thank you for sharing it. The photo with Sinem is beautiful. My experience was quite the opposite. After 42 years of full-time work in the corporate world, I retired in 2021 and started my own consultancy, dedicating just 8 hours a week to select clients. This shift drastically lowered my stress while maintaining the same income level I had while working 40 hours a week under the constant demands of a large company's CEO, including being called for emergencies at 2 AM when a bank was hacked. Now, I work only at my leisure. I've written a story about this journey, which I'll link here for anyone interested in gaining a different perspective.

https://medium.com/sensible-biohacking-transhumanism/i-wish-i-had-gone-self-employed-40-years-ago-for-three-reasons-7739e5afa150