Tim Sullivan

After high school, managed to put myself through college after a couple of unsuccessful tries, and eventually got a decent job. Having a reliable income enabled me to support a family and help the kids through college, but there wasn't enough time or money left to do a lot of fun stuff. I began looking for a way to earn more money that wouldn't use up all my time and energy (I wasn't totally successful).

Because we grew up on a small farm, I was used to repairing and building things. Farmers weren't usually rich, so they got good at finding ways to make do. I found I knew enough to repair and renovate apartments, so I invested in a small apartment building, This worked, but it took money up front and years of work (so freeing up my time wasn't very successful). The big upside was passive income the property produced after the upgrade was complete and I got most of my time back.

When I retired from my regular job, I continued upgrading and improving the apartment building and eventually sold it at a profit.

I started with almost nothing, and with a horrendously poor ability to get along with anyone. I did have supportive grandparents that helped me get part-time work while in high school, and in between attempts at college, but finally getting accepted in a job that was interesting and paid well enabled me to start building the physical and social part of my life. Each step of the way, I needed to lean how to adapt to something new, whether it meant figuring out how to study while working part-time jobs, how communicate with people in a productive way, or just how to keep my car running. I was always in a state of flux, a state of becoming something different, and that got me out of a pretty bad early childhood into a reasonably rewarding and productive life.

What I'm about here, is sharing the useful things I learned with anyone who doesn't know those things and who thinks they might be of use to them.