Theoretically my longest position was self employed for about twenty six years, but that was really various IT "contracts". I'm not made for just being a cog in a system, but need challenges.
I decided over 40 years ago that I wasn't going for no gold watch, but would rather have a varied and interesting life. Unfortunately the really interesting jobs are not that financially rewarding. As some one counselled; "Great lifestyle, but lousy career", so I went into IT.
We have also structured our lives so we've never been forced to stay at a "job". Sometime it just evolves to be routine and doesn't need someone of my skills. Sometimes I realised this wasn't the job that you thought it might be(wrong questions at the interview) or definitely isn't what you were told it was going to be. Sometimes I've had great managers/team and was sad when the contract finally ended and other times "Well, if you're not happy, then I can pack my bags and be out in 5 minutes OK?"
The result has been that we have a broad education, our house(paid off), an investment property(paid off), the Nav(paid for), a workshop or two or three and are now people of leisure.