Also self employed and have been most my adult life. Honestly the times I had a "job" were completely soul sucking and left me hating life in general. Have a real hard time working for people who know less then me yet feel they should tell me how to do what I am skilled at.
Only had 1 job that nobody told me how to due what needed to be done and that wasn't to bad. But I was so good at it a client stole me away with a pretty nice offer. Was to young at the time to realize that money wasn't everything when it came to work.
I only worked for a boss once. For 1 year. It was a good lesson in what I didn't want to do with my life. Still took me another 10 years after that to see the light and start working hard on improving my situation.
It's not something everyone can do and those that can succeed at being self employed need to be very driven. Find it tends to say a lot about a person if they can make it work.