Interesting story.

That same book is on Amazon and has a review....from 2000.

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https://www.amazon.com/Computermoney-Serious-Dollars-High-Tech-Consulting/dp/1883422019/

The day I discovered how much consultants on my project were being paid for doing the same work as I was doing, I decided to be a consultant myself. Higher income is just one obvious attraction of consulting; there are many others. On the other hand it's definitely not for everyone. Alan Canton's book will help you decide for yourself. Here, in one well-written and candid package, are all the things you have to consider, from honestly assessing your job, people, organizational skills and self-discipline to the practicalities of establishing your small business *in your area* (that's an important point that other books I've seen fail to consider). In short, Computermoney answered all the unknowns in the back of my mind that were holding me back and gave me a clear and, as it turns out, accurate set of expectations of the consulting lifestyle. I have given copies of this book to six people over the years since it was first given to me. Four of them reached the same conclusion I did and are now well paid computer consultants. Good luck with your decision!

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Interesting how a book can change one's life.

In hindsight I really had no work friends. As soon as I did 1/10 of 1% better they developed hard ons of hate and envy.

Amazing how people can get petty and jealous as fuck if you're doing just barely better than they are.

Looking back, I thought I had work friends but now I realize that they really were not.

When I quit my last job, I figured "oh I'll keep in touch with some of these people" and "will see them again". Only time any of them reached out is when my old boss tried to take advantage of his personal connection with me (that I thought we had) to try and lowball me into contracting for them at a bargain basement price. I'm sure they all were pissed when I told them my price (which was closer to market value). If they were, so be it. They figured I was going to let them take advantage of me again.

My specialization was Windows desktop applications. At the time, this was red scorching hot as a niche.

So my pivot felt radical but was probably an uber conservative thing to do in retrospect.

As Captain Adama said in Battlestar Galactica, you stay with what you know. I guess that's the theme of my career.

At least you took the plunge, even if you were not happy with how things turned out in the long run. Many many people talk about it but never take action.