| A lot of people rightly point out the melodrama in this post, and that the OP has it better than he realizes. There's still some truth here. I'm 28, and doing ok now. I'm financially stable, and have 2K a month in recurring revenue + what I earn from short term engagements. My peers now think what I'm doing is cool, and my parents now appear to accept that I'm not a hobo. But, for the first year and a half, it was very tough emotionally. I was doing fine materially, but earning far less than I would have from a job. I knew that what I was working on had potential. In fact, my short term (6-12 month) predictions were pretty spot on. But that was based on my understanding of my niche. Others couldn't see inside my head. It was very, very hard for my parents to see that what I was doing would be worthwhile. Now that I have externally verifiable metrics of success, it is much easier to convince people that what I'm doing is a good idea. That in turn makes my work easier. I always felt that what I was doing was worthwhile. But it's a lot easier to work on something when your peers agree with your assessment. |