Haven’t been in this situation, but if you’re craving some sort of structure there are plenty of places where you could find a salaried job.
Companies value real world experience and having successfully built 2 products gives you skills that someone that came up through the ranks is unlikely to have. You may not have the technical credentials of a manager but you have the skills whether you know it or not.
Overall I would demoralize the importance of a career in your mind. Our society pushes the idea of dream jobs and passions and yada yada, which companies love, but most will be unlikely to find any contentment in employment. You can most likely find it outside of work, so try to find somewhere that you can fit in culturally and still have free time.
Thank you. I get your point - I suspect that 15+ years of constantly being consciously/unconsciously held up to society's idea of a successful career tends to cause people to simply assume that there is only one (or a handful) of definitions of what is success.
Companies value real world experience and having successfully built 2 products gives you skills that someone that came up through the ranks is unlikely to have. You may not have the technical credentials of a manager but you have the skills whether you know it or not.
Overall I would demoralize the importance of a career in your mind. Our society pushes the idea of dream jobs and passions and yada yada, which companies love, but most will be unlikely to find any contentment in employment. You can most likely find it outside of work, so try to find somewhere that you can fit in culturally and still have free time.