It's going to be tough on you and your family, but tradition be damned, follow your own path, not the one set out for you. Sometimes we don't have that luxury.

It's going to be tough on you and your family, but tradition be damned, follow your own path, not the one set out for you. Sometimes we don't have that luxury. Entrepreneurship is a risky proposition in that there are no guaranteed returns, after all. Supposing your mother is not working and your father is a low-income earner and your grandmother is a stroke patient and you have a choice between "fuck it, it's my life, I'm going to go do another startup" and getting a day job to help the family make ends meet (and maybe spend the best years of your life doing work you dislike), what would you do? I've made that choice, and while I remain somewhat bitter about lost opportunities and the like, what am I going to do? You have to take care of your own. Similarly, the OP may be in college on a scholarship and the family may be poor, pooling all their resources into getting him through college and hoping for better days after the OP gets that well-paid, boring engineering job. I'm not saying I totally disagree with you, you understand. If it's solely about your parents' opinions on what kind of life you should lead, I would wholeheartedly agree, but sometimes it's not just about what you want. :)