I second this. The fulfillment of doing work as a contractor and being the owner of my future is invaluable.

I have been working for 15+ years as consultant and contractor for a SP500 company and I have several friends that are FTE there. Over the years I realized I'm much more motivated and overall happier with the work I do than they are - at the same company and in similar positions.

I'm also much more productive because my only measure of success is the quality of the output of my work. If it isn't good, then my contract will not get renewed. So I have to produce something of value 100% of the time which keeps me in check at all times.

In their case there's politics, promotions, new roles, new bosses, performance reviews and so on.

The saying "eating what you kill" really resonates. Thanks for that.