Drop the Shame.

Somewhere along the way you absorbed the idea that standing in the middle is shameful - that the honest, noble thing is to make the product with your own hands, and the middleman is a parasite skimming off real workers. Hold that belief and you will never climb, because you'll be ashamed of the exact position that creates wealth. And here's the thing: the people already in the penthouse do not share your shame for one second.

Drop it. The honest middleman makes both sides genuinely better off - that's not parasitism, that's the most useful job in the economy. The shame was installed in you by a world that benefits from you staying in the basement. Let it go, stand in the doorway with a clear conscience, and take your cut like the people at the top have always done.