Interesting that you bring this up, as I was just reading patio11's article and ...

Interesting that you bring this up, as I was just reading patio11's article and thinking the same thing. When I was 18 I pivoted my business (freelancing, design work mostly plus webdev) to 'consulting' after discovering that my value wasn't in being on someone's hourly payroll, but rather providing ideas and solutions that were worth much more in the long run. I'm 20 now, and after a spell of no work (while in school, which I am no longer) I've been kicking things back into gear by trying to expand further into developer circles. I've spent the last week in my own Cocoa/iOS bootcamp while managing any current client work I have which I no longer bill by the hour. I'm only mentioning all of this here because I had the same experience while living in Japan, with a few optimistic exceptions– my fiancées parents. They and and a few other people I've met actually seemed very accepting of how I've done things so far, despite being quite risky. We're hoping to move back to Yokohama semi-permanently in the next couple years, and one of our primary goals is to bring more of that mentality back to the people who can do something with it, since even Japan's most 'creative' fields appear sorely lacking.