Shape of own future

We all start our professional career in some of the organization after our grad school, some start their professional career with well known BIG organizations and some starts their career in some less known, low key organizations as per best of their ability. But one thing is common for all of us is that we all start as 'Grad trainee'/'Apprentice' etc. and as years passes by and as we gain more experiences(with more gray hairs..lol), grow our domain knowledge we all try to climb up the ladder of the hierarchy.

So now here comes the question...For whom it will be easier to climb up the ladder faster? The people who started from BIG orgs right at beginning of their career or for the people who are in relatively low key orgs? Or if I put the question in other way "Which one is easier, to be a CEO of a startup or a CEO of BIG MNC"? This question brings in the debate what do you want to be... 'A small fish in big pond or a big fish in a small pond'? Probably there is no straightforward single answer to this question, as it would be different for different persons and also it depends on many factors like credibility, long term ambition, stage of career, socio-economic responsibility, risk agility and many more.

In many cases I have seen people spending their entire life as a small fish in a big pond and also on the contrary I have seen people jumping out from a big pond to a small pond to be a big fish.

For instance if you are an owner of a small business or an agency owner being in a small pond i.e. in your city or region of state due to lesser competitors its easier to get a deal with companies and kick off your business however scale of business would not be large enough. On a flip side if you want to do business on a global platform i.e. in a big pond you might have to encounter large global competitors which would eventually make harder to pitch in, but if you could prove yourself with all your credibility you could win a huge deal with large global player.

Now the 'big pond' and 'small pond' are purely indicative in nature, they might not necessarily represent some organization only that we worked for and measured with the no. of workforce, volume of business etc. It might represent the community we live in, it could be the friend circles we have, it could be the society we belong to and many more.

'A big fish in small pond or a small fish in big pond' the debate keeps on going for generations past and probably for the generations to come.

So what's your choice? To be a small fish in a big pond or a big fish in a small pond?