I quit my job last March and it was a bad idea.

I live in a third world country. I make less than half of what you do on your suckiest freelancing gig. The government here just passed a law against planking and is about to declare masturbation to be equal with abortion. The smartest here already left.

Last 2008 our house was demolished by the government without any compensation. Good thing I saved some and managed to build slowly with the small lot my parents saved up since they got married in the early 80's.

Come 2009 what we rebuilt (I live with my parents and I'm the only son; it's a norm here don't worry) was destroyed by the Typhoon Ondoy. Mostly due to flooding. Most of our stuff was soaking wet and unusable. Right now I have this little phobia thing going on when it rains hard. I usually love the rain.

At the end of 2010 the company I work for closed down. I was jobless. Unemployment rate here is not so bad, but still... I switched from PHP to Python and went with Django development. Started freelancing at the most ridiculous hourly rate but I have to start somewhere.

Now I got my house rebuilt from the floods. I work at home in a full time gig that pays the bills. I might get married in less than a year. I saved enough and still saving. I am still contemplating on creating my own business so I don't have to work as an employee anymore. I pay for everything in the house with my two parents as they are already retired.

It's not a spectacular success story (yet), but all I want to tell you is that some people had it worse. The storm will pass away. Don't lose hope. You are on the verge of poverty. Some people are WAY past poverty. http://nml.ru.ac.za/files/carterimage.jpg

Jobs are like girlfriends. I'm not trying to be sexist, I'm just speaking from my own perspective as a man. When I was in school, girls I was interested didn't seem interested in me. But then I got a girlfriend. All of a sudden, the girls who wouldn't talk to me started talking to me. It was weird. I'm not saying be a player, I firmly believe that when dating or buying gadgets, once you make a commitment, shopping around will only make you unhappy.

But not with Jobs. Just get a job. Any job. Work at a gas station or bus tables. Do something. You'll feel better about yourself and you take some of the pressure off yourself. And there is some magical aspect to having a job that makes you seem more interesting to employers, kind of like my analogy above with the girlfriend.

In addition to that, consider getting a degree. An AA would be great, a BA/BS would be better. It saddens me that a piece of paper is so important, but that's life. If you're not the type who excels in an institution then figure out ways to get real world experience. If you're a programmer I'd say do some open source development.

Do this in addition to getting a job. As the good book says, "Anyone not willing to work doesn't get to eat." (2 Thes 3:10)

Ok that changes the context of what you said. I thought you were like 30 or God-forbid 40.

You know all that bullshit about "you can't succeed if you don't take risks?" It's true. It's SO true. The world needs people like you, and me - I am your 40 year old rocky-road-to-success-story.

Totally second the "any job" part. I'd go as far as to say try to do something that isn't programming. Speaking from experience, sometimes the reason freelancing isn't going so well is some degree of burnout, and sometimes it's been the fact that although I thought it was what I wanted to do, really it was the only skill I had that I was qualified to freelance with, so it felt like having a job - but worse.

If you can't find something mindless to do that provides a new perspective and a new social circle, try to switch up what you're doing daily; write a blog, draw, whatever appeals to you.

haha