I’ve been on both sides - corporate and running a small business. There are advantages/ disadvantages of each. One’s experience in the corporate world depends very much on the amount of experience you have, the industry you’re in, your job function and whether your boss is a weak idiot asshole vs a strong smart good manager.

Firstly, don’t underestimate how much easier it is to get a paycheck and benefits vs. hustling to make sure you can pay your bills. A lot of people do corporate work because they have free time and less stress to do what they really care about (the arts, activism, working with kids, etc).

Early in your career, a corporate job is a great way to learn and meet people, especially if you’re boss isn’t a weak asshole.

If you have a skill that is in high demand and hard to BS your way into (eg Engineering, cybersecurity, law specialty), you can command respect vs other fields where you’re easily replaceable and often get treated as such. And these jobs also lend themselves to remote work.

Finally, if you have a lot of experience and are a good manager you can actually stop a lot of the BS. Companies want to make money, and in many cases that actually helps because you can focus on delivering value to customers, while most other people are flailing around in incompetence or complaining.

It’s not easy getting into these situations, but it’s very possible. It just takes foresight, hard work, emotional intelligence..and a dose of luck helps.