About to get into ltl and would appriciate words of wisdom

I didn't go to "school". Been driving big "stuff" since age 7. (tree harvester) Drove everything from fork lift to Trident Submarine and love to travel so truck driving was a good move for me. Got permit and hit the road with a crusty old owner/operator who had three trucks. Got my cdl 3 months later and started regional in a 09 Pete with reefers mostly. The guy was a idiot, fell $2400 behind in my pay, and eventually was screaming at me for not taking my previously abused truck, now with a cracked head blowing white smoke, from Portland to Vegas. Also, he wanted me to drive 17 hours non stop to get back. I didn't take the load (of course) and quit. Left his truck in his yard after cleaning it up and making it way better than I found it. Found local job driving flat bed but his season is only 4 months. He is willing to rent his truck and trailer to me for a low price so I just filed for authority and am about to bind on insurance, etc.
A local company in my small town brokers ltl and needs drivers. They claim they have more freight than owner/operators to haul it. Can this be true? They have several drivers that have been with them for 5 years or so, been around for about 30 years, and all seem like good people when I went to the office to check them out.
Am I just lucky or am I missing something? One thing I know for sure is that many other drivers are full of good information and brokers are full of whatever they think drivers want to hear.