Interesting write-up.

As someone with a slightly above average IQ who is technically poor, I can look back on the events of my own life and see where forks could have gone in an advantageous way, but didn't because of forces out of my control, and I ended up where I am: struggling as a poor entrepreneur trying to claw out of a hole.

At 35, I am finally making video games independently and making money doing it. This is something I had started doing at 14, but my parents were unable to recognize what was in front of them. I was told to "get a job so you can get a better job", which was the worst advice of my life.

I put game development to the side and got my first job at 14 and had been working for the man ever since up until 5 months ago. And where did it get me? Well, I have a worse net-worth now because of debt than I did at 14 before I even had any money!

The advice I was given as a kid was terrible but well-meaning. I knew it was bad, so I rebelled against it, but didn't have any guidance or reference point to know what to rebel towards.

Sometimes parents don't know what the right move is and they make the wrong decisions for their kids. My parent's didn't know in the mid-90s that the video games industry would surpass film in the not-too-distant-future: they thought I should become a workman or a welder, because that's all that they knew.

It's hard to blame them for not understanding innovation or recognizing talent -- few people can do that -- so I put the onus of my life onto my own shoulders now, and I try to recognize the skills that my own son and other young people have, and try to be a voice of self-empowerment and entrepreneurship in their lives so they know that there is another way that they can go -- that they can set their own path in life, and this path is fueled by the coals of natural talent in the engine of passion.

Thanks for the post, and allowing me to open up this part of my psyche.

Upvoted :)

@shayne