Very interesting post. I'm on the business side of the coin and I am struggling with the same issue. I'm in my early twenties. I graduated from Umich in april. As an undergrad everyone around me worked at top corporate firms so i followed suit and interned for a prestegious bank during a couple summers.

I learned very quickly that I hated doing the same thing for someone else every day. I always felt that anyone could be doing what I was doing.

On the other hand I worked on a startup at school and i loved it. I felt like I had a purpose creating something new that nobody else had seen or worked on before.

Unfortuanetly that startup didn't work out because the team wasnt right. But I'm not giving up on my dream to create. I wont be working at a coppration anytime soon. Ive been working on my own startup since graduating and It's been working out quite nice. I just raised a seed round from a great development/incubator firm based out of nyc.

I'm looking for a cto to manage our development team if you are interested. Email me at davidmspi@gmail.com. You'll never have to code for us!