I had a mild epiphany at my birthday party Saturday night. J and a friend were discussing the possibility of a new start-up venture, when I noticed something interesting about the conversation. Our friend, who works in finance, approached the situation from a “How can I make money from this?” point-of-view. J’s first instinct was to dissect the situation and find all the possible cons and pitfalls. He would design test-cases where everything that can possibly go wrong would go wrong…and he would try to find ways to fix those “bugs,” or at least find methods to circumvent the problems. After all, he is a software test engineer by trade. By this time, my cousin had joined in on the conversation. She, who is...

Part 1: The world doesn't owe you anything. Part 2: It's never too late. Part 3: Make the best of it. Part 4: Be ballsy. 5. Sometimes, it really is pure luck. When I first started job-hunting, I didn't have much going for me. My grades weren't good, I had little experience, and I had no clue what I wanted to do for a living. I sent out my resume to hundreds of companies and never heard a peep. Soon, the bank of mom and dad threatened to cut me off. "Get a job or move back home." I decided to try temping while still job-hunting, just so I can prove to the parents units that I wasn't lying on the couch watching TV all day. I contacted a temp agency, and...