Josh - if you are a UK resident and citizen, you should be able to go to college and uni for free or for very nominal fees correct? Why the $80K debt?
Here is one perspective:
9 out of 10 startups fail. So even if you do drop out and start your own company, you are not likely to succeed the first or even second and third time round. But you will LEARN A LOT! You will learn a lot of things that uni would not teach you. That said, you can learn this whenever you start your company - at age 16 or age 22, or 33 in my case. That opportunity will not just go away because you go to college.
On the flip side, if you do go to college (a must IMO) and further 3 years of university you will also learn a lot. You will learn how to think about ideas and build your own perspective on the world around you so you dont have to listen to people like Peter Thiel (who btw not only went to university but also to law school afterwards. in fact vast majority of the "thielians" as you call them have multiple higher ed degrees.) This oppty will go away. People do go to college at a later age, but believe me its a lot harder, less interesting and extremely infrequent.
definitely if you are manic depressive i can see how pot would help. but this kid doesnt sound manic at all - just completely depressed. and pot can be a huge depressive even for totally normal ppl...
I was clinically depressed in college and you sound very much like me back then. You really need to see your college's medical center psychologist - most colleges have one. ASAP. Please.
I was a top student all through high school and first year of college and became utterly depressed to the point where I failed a class because I simply could not drag myself out of my dorm room to go to the final exam. That happened to be a real kick in the pants for me... to jolt me out of my state. And get me to a doctor.
Few things that may help
- It is a phase, it will pass. But you need to be proactive and get moving. And get to a doctor - please.
- Join a bunch of clubs or sports teams (if you're athletic) or volunteer. Sometimes going to class seems unbearable but having other activities, especially ones where you have a commitment to show up for your team helps.
- Get a job - same as above. Accountability to others helps.
- Take time off and travel. If you're doing fine in college and getting decent grades etc., and can afford to skip a semester - do it! College is the last time you will have a chance to do completely new things. And traveling doesnt have to cost a lot of money... esp if you're a college student and dont mind hostels.
- And above all, PLEASE DONT DRINK or SMOKE POT. Both will make the situation MUCH worse.
I cant say I fully recovered but I am not at all the way I was in college. You will get out of it, but you need to act.
John, launch announcements and any PR needs to be carefully planned. There are many factors, but at the very least before you start contacting media outlets you need to be super-clear on 2 things:
1. Your target audience - be as specific as possible. You say that your service is regarding home-safety. Does this require a significant $$ or time investment on the part of a homeowner to install and manage? Do you have to own your home to be able to take advantage of it? Does this appeal to more affluent people? With children? etc. Get very specific. You can then see how your target intersects with the demo of specific media outlets.
2. Purpose of your PR. what do you want to get out of this announcement? Do you need funding? Do you want to attract actual end users? Do you want to create buzz so that retailers will contact you to carry your product? These goals require extremely different tactics and usually very different media outlets. In general, end user acquisition for a mass market product is rarely accomplished from PR unless you get into NY Times/ USA Today/ Oprah. If user acquisition is your goal, I would suggest not spending much on the announcement at all (announce wherever) and instead get really awesome at SEO, and contact mass-market blogs (like the kind Yahoo / AOL / MSN feature) and even niche home-owners blogs etc. to get written up.
i definitely see value in someone else picking clothes out for ppl who either hate to go shopping or dont have any sense of style. one other idea for you - you should combine this with a secret shopper business. brands will actually pay people to shop as "customers" in their stores so they collect feedback on how their employees behave, if the store was organized etc. i used to do this in college. your shoppers could also be secret shoppers - thats an extra revenue channel for you while they are out buying geeks their clothes! we should talk btw if you want to do this for real: mitalip AT gmail
(from a woman who shops a LOT): mens shirt and pants sizes are fairly standard - thats a good thing for this business. As long as you collect ppl's sizes, most things should fit. I would also consider having a style-determinant upfront. Like: do you want to look like mark zuckerberg, larry ellison, or sergey brin for example if geeks are your target audience (if not, use celebs.) at least this will generally put the clothes you send in the right ballpark of what that guy dresses like. although if he dresses like larry ellison he probably has his personal shopper and a wardrobe of armani and wouldnt be using this service! :)
my biggest concern with this business is that if its successful you actually make yourself redundant. meaning if ppl really like the shirts you send them, and say they're H&M - well they just decide to shop in H&M from then on and stop paying for you. Your retention rate is inversely proportional to how good your product is - thats bad business.
We have this system - Its called Quora.