Not being rude to the author, but I wonder how much of this is naiveté of young age. He definitely had early career success. Like most people in his situation

Not being rude to the author, but I wonder how much of this is naiveté of young age. He definitely had early career success. Like most people in his situation it can be very hard to understand how hard life can be at the opposite end. When you are young, and have this kind of success without prior equivalent failure it can be hard to grasp how much you'd have to work to make that much on pure hard work and merit. It's easy to spend and throw it away, or even not respect the uniqueness and blessed situation you have now. Then you reach some thing like 35-40, and realize you have no luck going for yourself anymore. The best years are behind you. And you have to put in life devastating hours only to fail. And there is nothing you can do but suffer through it. Back from where I come we have a proverb in Dakhni Urdu which goes like this: People make the worst possible decisions of their lives when their stomach is full.