Originally Posted by epitome

Dave, I respect you and I agree with what you're saying, so I'll give you the rundown.

In many threads I mention that I used to be in real estate. I've had Crohn's since I was 16. I cannot get health insurance unless I'm working for someone else (not possible unless I get a lot of sick days) because of my pre-existing condition.

Without insurance, you tend to push things with your health until it's too late.

In late October 2008, I pushed it too far and needed a colostomy. There were some complications (hernia around the incision and they couldn't re-operate) with the surgery and I had a hard time getting used to the bag. I went six months without working.

Things were rough and running like I used to for 16 hours a day will never be an option again.

Last April, I thought "I was briefly in the porn biz in '02...let me give that another go." I literally started with two domains and $8 virtual hosting.

In under a year I've grown that into multiple thousands of dollars a month but I'm still a little short each month from being comfortable. There is always one or two bills eating away at me ... this time it's my yearly heating bill ... $1700 due on April 1st and another $600 due 30 days after or they shut off my power. I've got a lot of that covered but still need some more.

I'm at that point where I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have some amazing things in development, some great ops going on, but the money is just not all the way there yet.

The other day you reminded people that you used to bounce checks. If I had to guess where I am right now, I'm probably at the point you were right when you were writing that last check that was going to bounce. That point where no matter how promising the future is, you still have BIG problems.

I didn't want to give my sob story, but I am one of those people that says "if you're only making X, you shouldn't be in adult." To my credit, I did start in probably the worst year to start and started with $0. In fact, I've spent less than $50 in traffic to date because all of my income goes into regaining the life I had pre-surgery.

Almost there...

That is why $205 can be so important despite being in adult. My traffic growth, ratios and other numbers say I shouldn't go anywhere.