Your experience is weirdly similar to mine, including that startup (which I wouldn't want to trade for anything else - it was sooo enlightening!). Except, I detoured to some technical solopreneur profession, almost (partially) gave up on my writing dreams, and am nowhere near reaching the FIRE. But I believe in the process, and it's moving forward for sure. ;)

Thanks for the great article and inspiration. I am looking forward to read more of your experience and hopefully learn from it on how to improve, help steer, or speed-up mine.