I had been a software engineer for 2 years when my friend and I got a year&#x27;s worth of money to build a startup for an idea I had. The timing ended up not being right due to family reasons, so we ended up not doing it. It was really disappointing, but I knew it was the right thing for my family.<p>Four years later, I&#x27;m incredibly glad I didn&#x27;t do it. I&#x27;m convinced I would have made bad technical decisions and doomed the company. I&#x27;m not a perfect software engineer now, but I&#x27;m worlds better than I was. Writing and deploying software on someone else&#x27;s dime has given me invaluable experience, and I&#x27;m certain it&#x27;s prepared me to be successful in my own company some day soon.<p>While at a big company, I&#x27;d still encourage you to work on side projects and see where they go. Doing that will give you even more experience in building an MVP.