The story of the corporate worker who goes off to start his own small business is one of the oldest in modern capitalism.

But what about the erstwhile entrepreneur who chooses to leave or was forced to close his small business and go back to the corporate mother ship? Is it true that once you go to work for yourself you can never go back to corporate life?

Hardly.

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It’s possible that former small business owners might run into personality and workflow difficulties when reentering the corporate workforce, but it’s not an insurmountable barrier.

In fact, there might be specific positions and certain companies where entrepreneurial employees will thrive. Job seekers just need to determine where they are.

“It’s not the size of the company, it’s the right business environment,” said Patrick Boyle, a vice president at IBM (IBM).

Boyle left IBM in the early 1990s only to return five years later. He said he was lured to the world of small business, like many technology sector employees, during the startup and dot-com boom that coincided with the rise of the Internet.

IBM is an old and large company, an icon of big business in the 1950s and 1960s known for employees uniformly dressed in grey suits and ‘sincere ties’ while adhering to a strict corporate business code.

Yet Boyle said he came back to IBM because it has provided him freedom he couldn’t have in a small business environment.

“I work out of an airplane and my home office, and so does the team that works for me,” Boyle said. “My management team gives me a revenue and profit goal and we try to figure out how.”

Many companies have entrepreneurial undertones. Search engine giant Google (GOOG), for instance, gives employees what’s known as “20% time,” which allows them 20% of their work week to work on projects that interest them.

“Corporations do want entrepreneurs in their ranks,” said John Hannon, a professor of entrepreneurship at University at Buffalo School of Management. “But they have to want it.”

Hannon said he has told some MBA students to downplay an entrepreneurial minor if they are going to work for a company that is fairly strict.

There are many reasons why someone might need to return to the corporate world, ranging from a business that failed to a business owner who wants to sell while the business is at peak value.

Also, big companies can provide financial security that small businesses may not – a regular weekly paycheck, health care, a pension, etc.

But many people are simply not mentally prepared to start a small business, which is borne out by the sobering fact that most small businesses fail within the first five years. According to the Small Business Administration, 33% of small businesses with employees fail in the first two years, while 56% of small businesses fail within the first four years.

“It takes a unique type of person to be a successful entrepreneur,” said Bill Aulet, an entrepreneur in residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “You have to be a generalist and be able to quickly move into action when you need to. Some people aren’t ready for that.”

In comparison, the corporate world can feel like a comfortable pillow.

Instead of the risk-taking generalists of the small business world, corporate workers are often specialists who rely on getting consensus from their dozens of colleagues before setting and achieving goals.

That need for consensus building can be a point of conflict for former small business owners who have returned to the corporate world, Aulet said.

“There can be a lot of inertia against you,” he said. “Big companies are built to be conservative because they have a huge asset to protect. There has to be a sense of urgency and change in the company for an entrepreneur to succeed.