I started working full time right after I turned 15. My family had always flirted with extreme poverty. At one point all 6 of us lived in a tiny gulfstream on

I started working full time right after I turned 15. My family had always flirted with extreme poverty. At one point all 6 of us lived in a tiny gulfstream on the back property of a church for 6 months. We had to carry our waste out in buckets. We got kicked out of section 8 housing by the sheriffs department. This was while living in a combination of DC, or the VA side. My mother was diagnosed with cancer (which took her life 7 years later) when we didn't have insurance and my dad stopped getting out of bed. Because of pre-existing condition laws at the time she was unable to get insurance outside of state medicare. My very religious parents best option was to divorce so my dad's income wouldn't effect her status, they declined. The summer after I turned 15 I worked my first 40 hour week (over a weekend) running networking cable and doing admin for a local medical home equipment company. I transitioned from small business network admin to SEO and "New Media" and on to become a developer. I paid for rent and food for my family, anything I didn't spend on work clothes or essentials was taken by them each month. I didn't have a car. I spent 1 semester in college and couldn't afford it, I couldn't afford not to make money and I lived in an active construction site, just a mattress on subfloor in a gutted husk. I was born with a couple heart defects that cost me thousands each year at a minimum, until ACA I could not get personal insurance and had to get company insurance. I have started companies and done well for myself but the lack of access to capital, the lack of network opportunities meant I have had to scrap far harder than people can understand. I've had to fake coming from a position of security my whole life just to have more leverage in negotiating. I've had to learn to code switch in ways people don't understand. I learned this all after my first (illegal) W2 job took maximum value from me and payed me a third of what my role, responsibility and output would have earned as an adult. People who make it don't appreciate how lucky they had to get, people that have parents that aren't a net financial burden can't understand what that weight around your neck is like, people are far luckier than they appreciate. Lack of access to capital, having to constantly bootstrap without any kind of family or other safety net, having no home to go home to is something most people don't understand.