I'd rather make $250K a year from a startup I own than $400K working for someone else and I don't think it's particularly close. That $400K salary is awesome. But the second you stop working the money stops coming in. Meanwhile the founder making $250K is also building an asset. Every new customer you close. Every improvement you make to the product. Every dollar of recurring revenue. All of that can make the business more valuable. One day someone could come along and offer $2M or $3M…