Today I think life is too short for full time work, and see the rates my bosses saw as extortion then as so so.
I've gotten financially positioned to be able to say no. It prevents me from doing crazy things like working (many) 80 hour weeks. Seriously I bet you could say no to some of the crazy hours but could'nt say why beyond the money you never have time to spend (at some point money just becomes a way of keeping score IMHO). Please take this all as friendly commentary etc. Tell me to shut up if you need 500K/year for a sick kid or something.
My pattern seems to be about a 50% duty cycle with about 50 hour weeks if clusters of months (I find my quality drops drastically if I don't get enough sleep). I do remember being hungry, but I also remember working my a&* off when I could'nt find sensible ways to spend the money I already had.
I'll post my client list right after you post yours. And yes I'm gratefull for so many things.