

Thoughts On Becoming Self-Sufficient and Defeating Personal Homelessness - colinprince
http://paradox1x.org/archives/2009/12/on-get-a-job.shtml

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wallflower
For context, he was homeless about fifteen years ago. And is still very
involved in helping the homeless.

My impression is you wouldn't have been able to guess that he was homeless X
years ago based solely on his middle-class life now. _Real bootstrapping_

I believe one of everyone's worst fears is to be homeless (whether
acknowledged or not - I hate inevitably thinking about it whenever I see
someone on the street).

<http://paradox1x.org/pages/1989.shtml>

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junklight
The flip side of this is that having been homeless you have nothing to fear. I
had a period of homelessness in my early 20's - it was fairly self inflicted,
I was burned out from the ridiculous hours in my first job and needed to
escape from everything but I was already a decent programmer so I knew I could
get back on the ladder - so nothing like what this guy went through.

The good thing though was that it made me feel like I could cope with
anything. Homelessness reduces your horizons to "where am I going to sleep"
and "how am I going to get some food" (to the point were those two things are
_all_ you think about most of the time) and having come through that I felt
like I could try anything because no matter how badly it went wrong I would be
ok.

~~~
wallflower
Thanks for sharing your experience and perspective. How do you push yourself
as an entrepreneur if you don't fear the normal things?

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glymor
Sociality seems to have negative feedback at the edges. The height of the
potential barrier is easy exceeded if you're self-sustaining and near
impossible if you're not.

The only part of this I've personally experienced is similar chicken and egg
problems trying to move to new country. You can't get a apartment without an
employment pass, the bureaucracy can't send you letters without an address. If
you have money you can bootstrap off a lawyer or accountant's credentials
otherwise there isn't always a way.

~~~
gaius
He mentions friends helping him several times, but not crashing on someone's
sofa, and a couple of times he specifically mentions that he wouldn't go to a
shelter - I'm curious as to the reasons for this? The shelter maybe because he
feared getting stuck there?

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julius_geezer
Interesting piece. Thanks to colinprince for posting it.

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kadavy
The most useful wisdom always comes from the chlenges we personally face. This
is where the best startup ideas come from.

~~~
idlewords
That is startup-as-self-help wishful thinking.

