I have seen this so many times it isn't even funny. Talented people start off their career at a startup and then kind of camp there forever. The "Hate being the smartest person in the room" quote is classic as well. You end up being the best programmer you ever met because... well... you are at the top of your little mound. It's not even that you are necessarily the smartest or best in your group. But who is going to challenge you? It's a no go from the start.
Young (in experience) programmers need to move around a fair bit early in their careers, IMHO. It's good for getting perspective and seeing things from different points of view. But it isn't all roses and sunshine. It will be very challenging in a number of ways, but if you don't do it you will stagnate.
So what should you do? Get a job in an area and do your best. Don't try to do everything. Try to learn from others. Get to see their perspective. Do it wrong many, many times so that you can really understand why it is wrong. Or why (surprisingly) it is not.
But most important of all, don't try to do it all. I'm sorry to say this, but you are not a big fish in a small pond (yet). You are a fish that doesn't yet know what "big" means, or else you would have asked a very different question. What potential you have to grow will be determined by the attitude with which you take your next steps.
Young (in experience) programmers need to move around a fair bit early in their careers, IMHO. It's good for getting perspective and seeing things from different points of view. But it isn't all roses and sunshine. It will be very challenging in a number of ways, but if you don't do it you will stagnate.
So what should you do? Get a job in an area and do your best. Don't try to do everything. Try to learn from others. Get to see their perspective. Do it wrong many, many times so that you can really understand why it is wrong. Or why (surprisingly) it is not.
But most important of all, don't try to do it all. I'm sorry to say this, but you are not a big fish in a small pond (yet). You are a fish that doesn't yet know what "big" means, or else you would have asked a very different question. What potential you have to grow will be determined by the attitude with which you take your next steps.