Owning your own business offers many advantages over working for another company, and the list offered above is many of them; but not the meat of why most owners I've met wanted to do it on their own.  It's the personal challenge of building something tangible by themselves, and watching it grow and prosper.  Of course you don't actually 'do it on your own', there are many people involved in helping a new owner find out what they don't know about what they don't know.  But being a sole-proprietor is a great way to make those ideas you had come to fruition when many people along the way told you it couldn't work; you can build a better or different mouse trap and earn your keep while meeting so many wonderful people along the way.  But that one big axiom that we've all heard about being a business owner is quite true; "ya don't work, ya don't eat".