Owning a small, solid thing beats looking important inside a shaky one.

A title inside a fragile organisation is borrowed, and it disappears when the organisation does. Something small that you actually control keeps working: a few regular customers, a skill people pay for, a side thing that covers your phone bill. Importance resting on somebody else’s structure can be removed by a decision you were never part of. Solid and small outlasts impressive and hollow.

Build one small thing you would still have if the main thing fell apart. One paying customer, one skill that is yours, one account with your name on it. It only needs to be real, not big.