how do you avoid burnout and getting taken advantage of?
iamelgringo: I dream about the rewards of hard work--I want to travel, to live the good life--but then I look at my life and see my twenties beginning to slip away, with a high likelihood of nothing but memories of hard work and my morning coffee to replace them.It sounds like you have two separate problems.  The first is that you want to travel, and live the "good life".  The second is that you're unhappy with how much work you're putting in to the startups you're working for, and how little you're getting in return.I've been there, and I understand.  I've tried to approach that problem from two different angles.  The first, is that I've just had to travel a lot more.  I found myself putting off things that I really wanted to do, because I figured that I'd have to be rich to do the traveling that I wanted to do.  That idea turned out to be crap.So, I've flown the American Airlines challenge the past two months to get elite status for the next 14 months.  That means, I spent $2200 to fly 50,000 miles with American the past 3 months.  And, that means that I'll be able to fly first class this whole next year for free.  It's been a blast.  I've gone to Madrid, Frankfurt, and I'll be going to Barcelona in a couple of weeks.  It's amazing how much more productive I am after I have a bit more gas in the tank.The way that I've approached the second half of the problem is to start my own company.  It's really hard to get rich working for someone else.So, may I suggest taking some time off, treat yourself to a bit of the good life, and use the time on the plane thinking about founding your own startup.