I did it on the spot within a matter of three weeks. I had already saved up enough to support my lifestyle at the time for three months plus I have a consistent

I did it on the spot within a matter of three weeks. I had already saved up enough to support my lifestyle at the time for three months plus I have a consistent source of passive income. My lifestyle was extremely frugal. I never ate out, only bought the food that I needed, no TV, layered up instead of turning on the heat, didn't buy anything I didn't need, etc... At the time, I was living in Las Vegas - cost of living wasn't too bad. For a time I considered living out of a tent (urban camping) but decided that my budget was capable of supporting me without resorting to that. (it is much easier to maintain a structured self-education and side-project routine when you live in an apartment vs. a tent!) In nine months I completed a book on college level rhetoric, a college level course on philosophy and reasoning, re-taught myself how to perform arithmetic on fractions (my weakest point in math), algebra 1, geometry, and half way into algebra 2; I studied a few classics too: Aristotle, Ovid, and Emerson. I was a core committer for a popular open-source project, put a lot of time into that; I also finished two of my personal projects/ideas. The projects were academic interests and at the time I didn't really have the knowledge nor network to monetize them, so they've just gone into the personal history book as "experience". Once I was done with my nine month stint, I moved to San Diego (from Las Vegas) and began doing contract work under my own sole-proprietorship for about six months. After that I co-founded a startup (8 months ago) which is now paying my salary entirely and very close to profitability. I like this new job much better :) I got the idea to pursue nine-months of structured personal focus from the dissatisfaction I was experiencing with the "work for someone else" thang.