Quote Originally Posted by Pokemon Trainer Sarah View Post
Yeah luck definitely plays a role. I always used to wish my family owned a business so I could just work there when I grew up!

My dad has been at the same company all his life. It would be so nice to know that you're always gonna have a job tomorrow. I doubt that's a luxury anyone is gonna have in future though. :|
As much as I'd like the idea of having my own business, it's too expensive and there are so many regulations now that I'm surprised I don't need a permit just for going outside. That, and the number of failing business in the United States is just frightening.

I even got an entrepreneurship certificate in grad school and... wheee, it's going to waste. I just don't think the current economic environment is suited for new businesses to spring up with rents being super high and availability of startup capital being extremely low for most people. I also had a friend in college who tried to start his own business selling auto parts online and it cost him so much money by trying to keep it alive that I just couldn't help asking myself what the whole point of it was. Month after month, I heard he had been dumping thousands into it to keep it going and kept trying to hire helpers who would work for a percentage of the profits instead of a fixed wage, and I just couldn't bring myself to get pulled into that kind of agreement when things were looking really sour. Not to mention that he had a real passion for cars, whereas to me, they're more of just a way to get around from place to place.

And this is why I'm trying to get books published instead. Yes, it's an investment of time and money, but if it all goes down, it still feels a little safer and more fulfilling as I enjoy it. Worst case scenario, my stuff never gets published, and before the days of the Internet, I've had plenty of stories and novel-length books just get thrown in a binder and forgotten about. At least now I could just post the entire thing for free online for whoever would want to read it, and if they never get read, well, that's no different from what was happening before.