After reading the OP:

(1) Business Is Okay: For the neighborhood I grew up in, a big fraction of the houses were owned and occupied by families of owners of businesses. (a) Drove into the country, met with farmers, evaluated and bought their cotton, and sold it to, say, companies making medical bandages. (b) Bought junked auto parts, renovated them, sold them to auto parts stores. Later bought, developed, sold real estate. (c) Had a warehouse next to a rail line, got big shipments of beer, sold smaller quantities to bars and convenience stores. (d) Sold, installed new tires to people with flat tires. (e) Ran a trade magazine for the trucking industry.

For more, not in my neighborhood but not far away, (f) opened a sit-down seafood restaurant, built relatively modest houses, started a national motel chain. (g) Sold jewelry to jewelry stores. I dated the owner's daughter -- they lived in a nice house and neighborhood and helped a cousin -- prettiest human female I ever saw, still in love with her. (h) Bought medium trucks with no beds, installed tanks, custom, e.g., for water, fuel oil, gasoline, .... For this last, I tutored the owner's son in high school math -- their house was really, REALLY nice!

It does appear that in the nicer neighborhoods, the fraction of house owners that were successful business owners was high.

Conclusion: "The business of America is business". To get important things done, America wants and needs successful businesses. The successful businesses are not flukes. Necessarily there WILL be successful businesses. The business owners were ordinary Americans, not geniuses, not venture funded.

(2) Key. To have a successful business, build something people want, like, need, and don't have (loose quote from some YCombinator source).

(3) Opportunity. Exploit the sudden revolution in productivity in our civilization, i.e., computers and the Internet. IBM helped automate the routine work of the accounting departments of major businesses -- good PI (productivity increase). PCs killed off the typewriters -- big PI. Email, big PI. Web, huge PI;
also great for information, knowledge, entertainment, maybe soon making dense cities less important.

(4) Cheap. In both historical and even absolute terms, current computers, the Internet, and the digital phone network are cheap, really cheap, just dirt cheap. E.g., I got new 8 core processor with a standard clock speed of 4.0 GHz for $100 -- can spend more than that on a family restaurant dinner; can come close on flowers for Valentine's Day. What are the recent numbers, 18 trillion bytes in a standard 3.5" size??? Big, big, big, big, huge PI steps up from history back to punched cards, ledgers, quill pens, etc. Are the PI opportunities already fully exploited?

What to do? Get a good computer with good software tools, a good Internet connection, write some software that will let some people get something they want, need, like, etc. faster, cheaper, better, easier, etc. and get users and/or customers (e.g., advertisers), and revenue. OWN the software. And, go ahead, own 100% of the business, as just an LLC (limited liability company): Soooo, "Look, Ma, no BoD meetings!!!". Can't be fired. Have minimal involvement with lawyers.

VCs? Do they write the software for/with you? Nope. Do they really know what way to please a lot of people that will make a successful business? Nope. Do you need their $500 K to pay for your computer(s) and Internet connection? Likely not. Can a sole, solo founder be successful? Example 1: Plenty of Fish, one guy, sold out for $500+ million.

Central Point: For better financial security, you need to own some/all of a successful business, AND the economy MUST have a lot of successful businesses. Every major US city has lots of such successes -- they are NOT rare.