About 18 months ago I was laid off from an executive position at a company I'd been with about 5 years. At the same time, I was trying to bootstrap a business o

About 18 months ago I was laid off from an executive position at a company I'd been with about 5 years. At the same time, I was trying to bootstrap a business on the side, I'm the sole breadwinner in our household, three little kids, and I had a house that was underwater that we couldn't sell due in large part to all the foreclosures in the area that were the competition. To make it worse, we had moved to a very remote, rural area for family reasons, so had two houses to cover, and zero job possibilities anywhere in the area. Eighteen months later, that side project has folded (which I'm ok with), the other house is sold, and I'm doing well consulting (and with minimal travel). Will your story 18 months from now be rosy and happy? I don't know, but I suspect if you are the kind that would take the risk to start up a business, you are the kind that will hustle to do whatever it takes to first reach a point of survival and then the road back to thriving.