Функция CreateProcess работает только из функции main

#include<iostream>
#include<windows.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<direct.h>
 
using namespace std;
 
const int MAXPATH = 32767;
 
unsigned long cmd()
{
    STARTUPINFO si;
    PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
    if(CreateProcess(NULL, "cmd.exe /c pythonw.exe -c exit(0)", NULL, NULL, false, 0, NULL, NULL, &si, &pi))
    {
        WaitForSingleObject(pi.hProcess, INFINITE);
        unsigned long ExitCode;
        GetExitCodeProcess(pi.hProcess, &ExitCode);
        CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
        CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
        MessageBox(NULL, to_string(ExitCode).c_str(), TEXT("C++"), MB_OK);
        return ExitCode;
    }
    MessageBox(NULL, TEXT("false"), TEXT("C++"), MB_OK);
    return 1;
}
 
int main()
{
    char path[MAXPATH], drive[MAXPATH], path2[MAXPATH];
    GetModuleFileName(NULL, path, MAXPATH);
    _splitpath(path, drive, path2, NULL, NULL);
    _chdir(strcat(drive, path2));
 
    STARTUPINFO si;
    PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
    if(CreateProcess(NULL, "cmd.exe /c pythonw.exe -c exit(0)", NULL, NULL, false, 0, NULL, NULL, &si, &pi))
    {
        WaitForSingleObject(pi.hProcess, INFINITE);
        unsigned long ExitCode;
        GetExitCodeProcess(pi.hProcess, &ExitCode);
        CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
        CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
        MessageBox(NULL, to_string(ExitCode).c_str(), TEXT("C++"), MB_OK);
    }
    else
    {
        MessageBox(NULL, TEXT("false"), TEXT("C++"), MB_OK);
    }
 
    cmd();
}

STARTUPINFO si={sizeof(si)};