That really depends upon what you are optimizing. Someone with a PhD who wanted to be a professor, worked in an academic role in a big org, worked at the edge of many technologies; doesn't seem like someone who would be happy at an insurance company.
I will also repeat the obvious (but oft missed) observation: working in a revenue-generating industry, not a cost center. This doesn't need to be a startup, but very few banks or insurance companies generate their massive products within IT.
That’s true. But the author wanted to be a “successful startup founder” and that never happened.
I said in another reply, that I made plenty of mistakes and had plenty of “failures” so I’m not faulting him for that. But where did he say that he learned from his failures and worked on his weaknesses that allowed him to succeed based on his goal of becoming a successful startup founder?
I will also repeat the obvious (but oft missed) observation: working in a revenue-generating industry, not a cost center. This doesn't need to be a startup, but very few banks or insurance companies generate their massive products within IT.