In my career I worked for a university and for a corporation. In those roles, I was often able to create my own workstream, be it research, creating educational software programs, working across corporate silos, or creating workshops to help colleagues solve thorny problems. Of course, I was accountable to some department head or manager, but we are always accountable to someone, even when we are self employed. People dreaming of “being their own boss” often overlook that fact.