In regards to rewards vs consequences, my point is that in a workplace you're abstracted away from the direct results of your actions (as OP mentions in his post).
You can be rewarded for other people's contributions (while having made no contributions of your own) and vice versa. When I worked in corporate, this lead me to experience a somewhat "wtf is the point" type of existential crisis.
When you're running your own shop, you have a much more "direct" relationship to your actions and the resulting outcomes. Not just in terms of costs and rewards, but also in terms of just seeing the direct "value" your actions provide. I mean think of all the countless cubicle jobs or professional services jobs where the sum of your productivity is basically meaningless, just random filler designed to keep the machine moving... (think of all the business consultants spending 80 hours week at the client site putting together decks that no one will read or remember in a few months)
It's the process overhead that most people complain about. Instead of adding value to the company, much of your time is spent on managing process for the sake of process.
For example, defining your work to maximize the chance of promotion may only correlate with company value.