Ask HN: I've tried lots of things but haven't finished any.

You're thinking too externally:

...capital, capital, people, people, publishing, acceptance/denial... and so on.

To be successful, you can't wait to be blessed or funded or accepted by anyone else. A good place to start would be trying to get small jobs/contracts/articles/whatever that'll make you a bit of cash, a bit of success, and some lessons and contacts.

Also: Feel free to ignore the people telling you to soak in your youth. The Western world infantalizes people - keeps them younger than they need to be. Kids used to be officers in the army as early as 14, coming of age ceremonies at age 12, starting basic work at age 8. I was making pretty good money playing cards at age 18 and started my first successful company at 19.

Getting a huge head start on professional success now is quite likely to lead to a fun life with lots of cool people, experiences, and travel. Don't sweat missing opportunities to drink beer and socialize with young girls - it's overrated and you can do it in a much more high class and comfortable way after you make it later.

I'd recommend you start shooting for small wins that pay just a bit. Don't worry about your hourly rate, focus on your monthly rate. If it takes you 50 hours in one week to make $500, but you learn from it, that's good. Hell, 50 hours to make $200 in business could be worth it - it takes a long time to get started in business to the point where you make any money at a reasonable speed, but controlling your own destiny scales up much better. My first year in business I think I averaged like two dollars and change per hour - we're talking 50+ hour weeks for like a touch over $10,000 at the end of the year. Ugly, but I learned the ins and outs of running my own shop, which was necessary for later.

For now, look to grab some small wins. Try to not spend much too - if you can build your bank account up to the $50,000+ range over the next 2-3 years (very possible), then you'll be ready when you get a good opportunity to invest in some people, you can frontload marketing and distribution contracts for better economies of scale, you can test hire someone for six months if you meet a good person, you can throw in and get a share of a commercial real estate deal... look to live off of rice, ramen, cheap rent, minimal alcohol, the dollar menu at fast food restaurants, and bank all you make. Do a lot of little stuff, don't get arrogant and think anything is beneath you or not paying enough. You're 18, so everyone is going to write you off. It sucks, but all us young entrepreneurs went through it. You don't have a track record, and there's also a lot of things that you're not aware you don't know. Hustling and taking little projects, jobs, opportunities when possible helps fix both those problems, and can build the bank account for the bigger wins later.

Best wishes - I admire the ambition. Most of my friends were on a similar track at your age, and a lot of them have come out crazy-well just now into their mid to late 20's and early 30's.

> Why do so many people talk about youth as some sort of idyllic time in one's life?

If you look into how memory works, negative details fade and positive memories remain. I keep pretty extensive journals, and it's absolutely staggering how much less pleasant my earlier life was than I remember it.

Also, most people accidentally wind up in a secure, relatively unchallenging position early in life, and never get out of that. Youth was their only time questioning authority, learning, and growing at a rapid rate. But the people I know that kept those attributes into their 20's... 30's... and 40's and beyond enjoy their later years as much or more than their earlier years.

If you're looking to run your own companies, projects, write your own papers, and do your own work, then you won't be nostalgically remembering your youth later. You're in line for a very challenging, but very stimulating and enjoyable life that gets better as time passes.

This may be a bit controversial, but I'd recommend you ignore the "play around and enjoy it while you can" crowd - most of the people I know that skipped that advice are quite successful and quite happy with that choice. Play around is good advice if you're looking for a very stable and secure life later. If you're in control of your own destiny, go ahead and build like crazy now - it'll have a compounding affect for the rest of your life, and will lead to a very fulfilling and prosperous life (and you're much likelier to end up quite wealthy, which has surprisingly become underrated as of late - consumerism sucks and you can't buy happiness, but wealth opens up so much freedom and opportunity. By starting now when you have no heavy expenses and aren't accustomed to a high standard of living, you put yourself in line to be very wealthy later)

Indeed - it sounds as if age/experience, the recession, and Other People have been the big drag factors here. Focus on something you can achieve start to finish without external capital, without other people who can make or break it. And for gods sake stop listing your failures, if I'd ever done that at your age I'd never have got out of bed in the morning.

Paying bills is easy, acquiring and keeping job if you are educated in something useful is also easy. Politics you can withdraw from. Disappointments are spread through all life and they are more harmful when you are young and emotional.

Being forced to learn boring stuff on daily basis for 10+ years (that actually longer since you are younger) while coping with your emotions and huge amounts of people you meet is far more hard then anything in adult life.

I have some ideas that might interest you or at least get you started. (My email's in my profile)

Like other's have said, time is on your side.