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pretty much the entire fam (including wifey). pops in law lived dirt poor as the first born/big bro with a family of 11 or 12 (standard number back then cos both my parents had same amount of siblings). he never got to have a formal education as a result, but knew how to work his ass off.
at one point he joined the Russian army and was being 'betrothed' to some high-ranking general's daughter, til he met future mama-in-law and they ran away together. each step of the way, he's had to conjure up a business and money where there was none.
at some point in the 70s/80s (like a lot of us), they came to Australia. pops, not knowing how to read, write or speak English, started a fucking CONSTRUCTION company lol.
he made millions.
then a recession hit and they lost everything.
for the last 20-30yrs, he's just been working from home on various projects. one year he starts a boat-repair business, the next he's become a puppy-breeder, meanwhile he makes his own honey, beef jerky, wine and ouzo & he builds and remodels entire rooms of the house as a hobby. he basically learns by doing research (after he forced himself to learn how to read the language) and then puts a plan into action.
moms-in-law also works from home doing child care for the last 20yrs.
their two sons have genius-level intellects and have never worked a 9-5 in their LIFE. they too start up businesses to make income (long term foodstuffs/survival foods, educational tutoring, trading on the stock exchange). the ONLY downside is that their lives are the exception to the norm, and sometimes you need to experience the norm. the sons have no concept of going out there and working for someone else, at times to their detriment. they have no practical experience working in the system & therefore no job history.
it's the weirdest fucking thing to be around lol. i ran a business once for a couple years from 2010-2012 with my own family. it was our first. just a little liquor store near the city. but it failed spectacularly. i walked away from that experience knowing that my immediate family has no business running their own business. we just weren't that good at it. so to see it work so efficiently and effortlessly with the in-laws was eye-opening (my idiot older brother on the other hand, chose to keep at it and has multiple failed attempts under his belt and all the debt that comes with it).
they (in-laws) have literally been their own bosses for decades.
their only problem is the astounding amount of debt they've racked up along the way cos pops became addicted to taking out huge loans every time he needed to fund a new business idea. which leads to other financial difficulties.
i guess the point of my wordy-ass post is that there's a few angles to consider when making the leap. not just the income stream, but whether or not you really truly want to be in that position, or if you would actually *prefer* 9-5ing it cos of the somewhat 'safer' status of the job and income. i loved the experience for the most part, the overall freedom was intoxicating. but we didn't have the right or responsible ppl helping us. and we definitely bit off more than we could chew.
guess it's hard to know til you actually make that leap, but it doesn't hurt to have a million safeguards along the way if u can help it. and most of all, be honest with yourself. i'm not saying give up after one failure, but it's worth it to analyse whether or not you're actually built for this kinda shit (i'm not, thus i plug back into the matrix).
V. ---
http://confessionsofacurlymind.com
https://soundcloud.com/confessionsofacurlymindredux
https://soundcloud.com/generic80sbadguy
https://soundcloud.com/miles_matheson
DROkayplayer™
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