How can I be different and aspire to be like the young successful people, so I can please my parents?

Your question and its details have a lot of things that don't add up to much. Lots of self-pity. I struggle with that sometimes, too; I understand.  I have a bit of a problem with your stance about your aspirations and hope that my opinion doesn't cloud my advice. Firstly, I agree with a lot that Anon User has to say on the subject. My two cents are as follows (and I aim to speak frankly because I feel it's right in this case. Please don't take it as being rude or crass): You are ruling your life by the perceived abilities of your parents and those around you. Stop that. While there is some genetic predisposition to some of it, a good part of your perspective in this particular arena (and in life in general) is learned behavior. Patterns. Create new patterns of behavior. You do know it's okay to be different right? And I'm not just saying being different from your parents, but being different -- acting, behaving, thinking differently from other people. You're already exhibiting that; you lack the acceptance and permission to embrace it. EMBRACE IT. People won't like it. In fact, the people closest to you will attempt to stop you, and you must beware of the ways in which they can succeed. Be strong and committed. You have tremendous compassion and want to honor your parents. That can be a hindrance. Hell, I want to do this, too; to take care of my parents and all sorts of great things (which is why more people need to come on board with what I'm doing with DIYFilmSchool ;) ), but it's a long haul. The challenge and task is changing the way you think about your circumstances, your identity and the roles you play in people's lives. I haven't done that yet; I'm still ruled by that crap. And because it's a long haul, it makes not having the success I want VERY frustrating. I will say that it's erroneous to base your worth as your parents' child on your desire to help them. You honor them by being a good person. I know you don't want to hear that, but why say you don't want to hear it? Would I be so bold as to suggest that you already know this? If you know this, then why are you putting undue stress on yourself? They love you whether you accomplish this goal. YOU need to love you whether you make it or not. But you will make it if you want to. One thing that really bothered me in your question details was the statement that you're "very knowledgeable" but don't know how to put the information you have to good use. You're not knowledgeable. You have information. Unless you have somehow put the information you have to good use in your life, then, yes you'd have knowledge. If you were "very knowledgeable" you would have probably noticed your inherent worth to the people in your life and the world at large. ANOTHER THING...(and this is just as big a mental note for myself as it is advice for you) STOP FUCKING TREATING YOURSELF POORLY! You don't have the skills or psychological backing by your parents to do something so big? If you're waiting for your parents to come to you for help and tell you "yes, you may", you'll be waiting for a long, long time. And you DO have the skills, you just don't believe it or trust that you do. I'm in that same boat. I don't know your age, but you make mention of 18-year olds who have succeeded, so I imagine you're around that age, too. Do you really think --beyond the societal norm (which is challenged nowadays) that 18 equals adulthood-- that your parents are going to come to you for help? You're still a kid! You may have some understanding of what it's like to be an adult, but you really don't. And that's okay, and I'll tell you why in a minute. But for now, quit waiting for your parents to give you their permission. If you're 18, this is the perfect opportunity to do something great, to be someone great. I'm ten years older than you and I'm just now starting to tackle this stuff. So give yourself credit and a pat on the back because you are the outlier, kid. I feel like I've wasted my life; you have far more life ahead of you, but time you do not. So here's what you're going to do: on your free time you will commit to yourself (and you should be committing to me or someone you can trust to hold you accountable) that you will spend it figuring out ways to put your knowledge, experience, talents to good use in the world. Make a list of the things you know you're good at. Make a list of the good things people have said about you. Ask your friends. Make a list of the skills you have, the talents you have, the experiences you've had. That's your first step. The next step is looking at your talents and skills and figuring out how you can combine the lists into a product or service you can sell. Can you consult? Can you write a book or create an audio program? Can you start a business and grow from that? Can you invest? Here's the thing: you are not average. The only thing keeping you in mediocrity is you. Stop holding yourself back and move! Just go, and correct your course as you go. But just get started. You can listen to as many motivational speeches and watch as many movies as you want, but until you put yourself in motion, it will do no good. You ought to feel so encouraged by the kind of person you are. Just go! Build close relationships with people who have skills and talents you can use, who want the same kind of thing as you and use them as a sounding board. Leverage them while you do your thing. If you want to do this, don't take no for an answer. Here is a link to a site which may help when you need inspiration. Look at it often: http://www.doitmotherfucker.com Read "The Four-Hour Workweek". It may help put some things into perspective for you. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WE46UW/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=diynet-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B002WE46UW

1) Young achievers aren't normal, they are outliers. The media loves to parade teens and young adults who are rich because they make fantastic stories, but this is not normal. It usually takes a person many years and many tries to succeed, so don't forget that. 2) Relax, the more pressure you put on yourself the more likely you'll give up when things get tough. You'll make bad decisions when you're short-sighted too. 3) Get started by finding out what hobbies you like. Sometimes it takes a while to find your passion. Start goofing around with whatever it is you're into and eventually enough goofing around turns into real skill. You said you liked internet space; so maybe learn to make webpages. Or get a job somewhere where you can learn to sell; selling is a HUGE skill. The most important thing is just taking those first steps and making something small happen every day. Good luck and have fun!

This Cracked article is really great. http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/

Sorry bud, but things just don't work that way. You can't just become rich by just following a set of instructions you found on the internet and magically all will work out just because you wish it to happen. First, you have to have the passion to succeed in something. Even the most talented people in any field didn't become successful by just being good at what they do. Skills are almost useless if you lack the passion for it. You could very well be actually really talented at something but you just don't know it because you expect others to tell you. So if you want to become rich, you need to discover your passion and then find out how you can use it to accomplish that. And it seems you can't find it by staying by your computer all day, so try something else for a change. Go outside, meet with people, talk with them, share stuff together and just learn to have fun. That will at least make you have a more positive outlook on life and who knows maybe one day you'll find that unknown passion of yours.

You asked for some examples of straight forward things to work hard on. Here they are: -Programming. Start with http://www.codecademy.com finish all the exercises and decide which language you want to focus on. -Mixed martial arts. Kids at your school probably play football or something but nothing commands respect like the discipline of a martial art. Start with jiu-jitsu at the closest gym/YMCA etc. That is two explicit recommendations. The first has clear cut a-z instructions and the second should be guided by an instructor. What you have got to realise is being "good" at something is literally how you are relative to your peers. If few of your peers are doing these things you straight away have a better chance because you got started earlier. Now stop bitching about how you are not good at things and start doing them so you become good. Now. Literally - stop reading and start a programming course or do some push-ups.

Dear you, You should know by now from your success books that saying never and having negativity does not get you anywhere. However, just the fact that you want to aspire for greater things makes you different. You're not normal in this aspect. So, forget your insecurities, you're already different in a good way. If you haven't noticed, many teenagers are more interested in getting laid than accomplishing things, never mind being a good child for their parents. Hell, that's why I have decided to write out this long-ass post for you. Because you're something even though you don't think you are. You actually want it. So, now, here, I will give you concrete things you could do. You wanted an a-z guide. But, again, the final decision is for yourself. The only thing that you can control is yourself. This goes many ways. One way is that even if other people don't believe in you, you still can. JENNIFER'S MAKESHIFT GUIDE TO DOING SHIT FOR YOURSELF: I recommend you do the numbered points in order. Read it all, but do it in order. Shit builds on each other. I've tried to make it so it won't cost you anything, money wise. Time, though, is a different. 1. Get a job first. Success comes in different forms. You can't jump from nothing to sudden, grandiose accomplishments that solves all of your life's problems. Do something small first. Getting a job, as Anthony mentioned, is a great experience. You can earn some cash to start building a financial base on which you can do bigger things with. You'll also be able to gain tons of experience of just learning to make yourself useful. I would recommend becoming a waiter or cashier or something along the service lines. You'll have to learn to deal with people and that is the most important thing you could learn. If you're going to be doing something successful, you'll definitely need to have this skill as success is rarely achieved on your own. Treat the job as a learning experience. It's a self-improvement method that will be earning you cash in the meantime. If you're troubled by the thought of getting a job, I'm disappointed in you. Your case is worse than I thought. You can do it. You can fucking do it. Getting a job as a teenager does not require any amazing skill that only the 'best' people have. No. Have you seen the people in high school who have jobs? Ofttimes I wonder what the manager was thinking when they were hiring these people. If you're still troubled, try volunteering first at a soup kitchen. Talk to people, learn to listen, soak up their advice. You'll see new views of the world. Then, get the fucking job. Now, you're on to a good start. 2. Anthony talked about patterns. This is really important. Having structure in your life can make a difference. The job will help give structure, but you need to make it yourself, too. It's not as hard as it seems. There was one quote somewhere on Quora that mentioned how instilling a small change in your life can create room for greater changes. After all, I have now come to conclude what you want most is change. This is what they do for diets. They first ask that you change a small aspect of your life to get you acquainted with the feeling of change. Habits are made in 3 weeks. Do something small for three weeks and you'll have a new thing in your life and you'll feel strange not doing it. Try any of these daily things for a 3 week test-run: ~Don't immediately do something entertaining after you get back from school. (This is assuming you're not in some club activity.) Finish all your homework first (this raises your grades in school, if you aren't on this already). This can increase your productivity level and teaches self-control (personal experience: I used to go home and play video games. I know. But, if you change it for one day, soon it turns into a week and the weeks add up to a habit. ~Write your thoughts for the day before you go to sleep or after you wake up. This will improve your communication and writing skills (it's something that can be learned). This will help you in the future. John Quincy Adams did this. He was an extremely disciplined person who woke up at 4 in the morning to write a long journal entry of the day before. Of course, you don't need to be this crazy. Figure out what works for you. Self-awareness is really important, too. Plus, on your mentioning about writing, you don't need to be good to write. You may not be able to make a living off of it, but so far, that's not the point. ~Abstain from something that you know is bad for you. Might as well quit now as part of your personalized self-improvement guide, be it video games, excessive fatty foods intake (this may vary, though, with financial circumstances, but if you can, give yourself a weekly quota), excessive television watching (give yourself a time quota or stop altogether). ~Something else you always wanted to do? Learn to come up with ideas for yourself! (I expand on this later.) 3. I always recommend athletics for guys needing advice. Always. You also said you aren't good at sports. That's the funny thing. You don't need to be good. Sports is about practice, putting in the time day in day out, using all your effort to achieve something for yourself. You said yourself that you're not 'fat'. Good. You have something to work with. I'd say you start out with bodybuilding. No equipment required most of the time. Find an exercise for yourself, what suits your needs. Google away. You'll be able to find one that requires no dumbbells, treadmills, etc. (Though, you could and should invest in a medicine ball using money made from your job when you have started making progress in bodybuilding.) Then, create a workout schedule and stick to it, like you learned through step 2. (Stretch and warm-up before an intense activity, too.) If you ever get bored of your routine, this is a link to a site that is basically a random abs workout generator. http://randomabs.com/today/ You could also use it to give you ideas of what you could do as a workout. Now, to extol the greatness of sports... (haha.) You'll build mental strength and physical strength. Mental strength is probably the more important one here. You'll learn to challenge yourself, push yourself to do that last push-up, and learn to embrace pain. I can't explain it. You'll know when it happens. You can train yourself mentally by not giving up, and by not cheating yourself. Be stubborn. If you said you would finish 80 squats, don't quit at 75 when your thighs start hurting. But, don't be stupidly stubborn. Your healthy is just as important. You can't workout if you pulled a muscle, really. Find a balance. Finally, just the sheer accomplishment of seeing abs or whatnot will give you a really needed shot of self-confidence. Learn to start setting goals: stronger-looking calves in a month, abs in three months, etc. As for physical strength, this might come in handy, I suppose. More importantly, you'll be healthier, in better shape. You'll feel better too. Physical activity has been shown to decrease chances of depression because of some released chemical that I wish I could remember. Plus, you'll learn to take care of yourself and your body. Your health outlasts any success. Take care of you before you take care of greater things. You'll also look better. You'll come off as more confident. It should also improve your posture, which is something people ignore. Appearances are important. 4. You're doing well. Set more goals and accomplish them. It's just like your working out and your habit-changing. If you ever have self-doubt, look back to those accomplishments. You're okay. These goals, they can be anything. Just the fact that you're achieving things will do wonders for your self-confidence and sense of self-worth. It's what success tastes like. You might be wondering what goals to have. If this is not an issue anymore, great, you won. I have nothing to teach you. If this isn't you yet, learn to have ideas. It really can be learned. Since you have said you don't know what to work hard on, work hard on yourself (self-improvement) until you can find this money-making endeavor. Ideas come from seeing opportunities comes from putting two and two together comes from finding the first two through research or just pure coincidence. Research on the internet is one part. The first part. You sound like you do it well. But, possibly for the wrong thing. Instead of searching for others' successes, search for things that interest you. So, what you like is another. The second part. It is so true that you can do things better if you like them. So, who the hell are you? What do you like? For examples sake, I will assume you like the internet itself. It's interesting. There's a shitload of information, you can talk to people around the world, there's ton of opportunities; it's great. But what about it? Okay, you want to do something with it. Maybe you want to carve your own space into this internet world and make some money in the meantime. You have skills and/or (note the or) willingness to do something about it. So, okay. You discovered your love of poetry. You realise there's no website about sharing people's poetry. No place to evaluate people's poetry and share your favorites. No way to communicate with other poetry lovers. Damn, this sucks. (This is an example. My computer is currently too laggy with all this stuff I'm typing for me to risk searching up the validity of this.) Great. You like the Internet and poetry and there's a need for a website. This is a calling. You recognize it. You take it. What makes money is yet another aspect. The last one, for your case. People involved = money. There's many many ways to do this. Apple made their products beautiful and cool. People wanted it. Google made its search engine highly useful. People used it. Money is the easiest to tie in. Get the people first. You can add advertisements to websites, invite sponsors when you host events, have commercials when you make videos, have a 'gold' level membership when you have a membership-type venture (see: reddit, credit card companies). This is simplistic and basic in terms of money-making ideas, but if you have something good, it will make money. This is why all those Squidoo lens on 'how to make money by blogging' and 'how to make money on twitter' exists, in my opinion. Some people just happen to skip over the first step and go straight to the money-making part. Which works too, if you do it right. As for exact steps, you'll know what to do once you get there. It's like a revelation in that it will come to you come time, come when you're about to do it. You can read on the computer for forever. Don't. You want the steps for every single point of the path. You can't get it because you can't predict it. The path takes many turns no one can predict. Loosen up and just take a dive. When it's time, when you need the next step, you might end up finding it for yourself. Eventually, you'll find that 'one goal'. I really think you will. Get out there, go get some real experience. Take action. Just take the first itsy-bitsy step of setting up a web domain account. It's enough and it's hooking. Know the first step, do it, keep going, and you'll be gold. If you care enough and you want it enough, I believe that you'll get it. Develop a skill if you need to achieve this goal. Everything can be learned up to a point. After that point (it's a high point, though, so I wouldn't worry about it), it's down to talent and luck. However, you don't know if you have this talent if you don't even try. With that, you. Can. Learn. Fucking. Anything. You. Set. Your. Mind. To.  Be it the said dancing, singing, acting, drawing, programming. No one started off brilliant. Your top dancers and singers in the country had to work their ass off to get their. You can and you will have to, too. Research off of the internet of how to start it and just take action. If it's something you need to learn like programming, for this poetry social-style website, get the fuck off of Quora and start researching, find the programming language fit for you and the site you had in mind, join the forums (I have heard they love helping noobies like you), ask questions, start learning the codes, read about the basics and just start 'doing'. Also, unless you're writing one too, don't spend your time reading the my-process/beginning-in-coding-in-Ruby. No. That's side-tracking your work. Be completely absorbed in the goals. The goal is learning Ruby, not reading about someone else learning Ruby. Maybe (I say this hesitantly) it will be of help when you're stuck, but mostly, search proactively for your answers. This takes discipline, but I think with time, it will be okay. Put in work, day in day out as you did with your workouts and you will get it. Hm, I might have gotten side-tracked, but practice making ideas so that you can have a goal you would want to work towards. You rarely get ideas by scrolling through newsfeeds. I get most of my ideas when I'm doing something else that doesn't require actual brain power. I wrote more on when I get ideas in some other post. You can read that if you'd like-- it 's on my profile. I am too laggy to link it. If you ever read about something that strikes you as interesting, roll it around in your mind and attach legs to it and just play with it. Go through your mental database and see what else you know that you could add on to it or apply. For instance, I was watching the documentary 'Exit Through the Gift Shop'. (Banksy's, a well-known street artist, film on the commercialization of street art. I say you watch the film if you're not afraid of getting nauseous. But do look into Banksy, if you haven't already. He's a household name and I have tons of respect for the guy.) And I liked the idea of street art and honestly really considered going outside and spray painting trees and shit. Well, I didn't, but I kept on thinking about it, adding legs to it, and thinking more practically and instead thought about how you could use spray painting for advertisements of grassroots cultural organizations and underground artists (musicians) and asking for fees since street art culture is relatively along the same wavelength and similar in terms of beliefs of those cultures. Too much influence from Shepard Fairey (something also interesting to look up for you: Shepard Fairey). But, anyways, that's probably illegal too. And I'd probably be in bigger trouble for charging such illegal defilement of public places. This turned out to be quite an awful example. But I hope you know what I mean about adding legs to a base influence. So I took the information from the 'outside' world: the street art movement. I started adding ideas to it, I considered street art's commercialization and its growing popularity, and poked around for other stuff that was on my mind. I have a friend who is breaking out into the music scene and I had been thinking of helping, but didn't know how. So I took two and two and put it together. Street art and underground artists. Then, I tied in the money part. Theoretically, it wouldn't be much of a cost. If I could charge $35 for each logo posted, and spray paint costs $10 for a whole bottle and each logo uses up a third of the bottle, and you can paint two logos in an hour and maybe later on you can hire people to help you paint logos while you sit at home reading Quora and even later on maybe you can add a website (to continue the 'culture' theme/better marketing/build your own customer base) and finally your website will be big enough so that you don't need to go around spray painting, but rather, selling street art-style shirts for these underground artists and your own brand, then lots of profit. Basic hustling. For all clarification, I will not be going around spray painting underground artists logos. I'm not much of an artist, anyway. Please don't spray paint logos, either. I'd say it's not worth the risk. Your time in jail could be spent building that poetry website. But, that is a really wordy crash course in brainstorming money making ideas. You could also Google "how to make money", but that's cliche. (Sarcasm. I use it too, I do admit.) 5. Now, though this seems contradictory, learn to get rejected after all your self-confidence you have gathered. I'm not talking about girls. Honestly, forget girls. Later on, if you feel that you feel you have learned enough from your previous job, I'd say you find a job as a door-to-door salesperson. Having the door shut in your face, should now teach you something rather than what it used to do, discourage you (assumption)? It should tell you that you won't fucking win the first time around. Even these teenage prodigies who are already self-made millionaires did not suddenly wake up with money on their front porch. You are just unable to see the work they have put in so far. You will be able to see it once you have put in this work. Having a door slammed in your face enough times also wears away the crude edges of the ego. You learn to appreciate people who do respond and it teaches you to respect their time and serve the customers. You learn to shrug off defeat, as well. It gives you a sense of positive thinking-- instead of focusing on the countless number of rejections, you learn that the ones that count and are remembered are the ones that you have succeeded with. He said no? Oh well. I have more doors to get to. This preps you for 'the real world', or so they say. However, if you've already gotten a good dose of rejection through step 4. You're great, forget this step then. Below are other things that shouldn't be done in order. In fact, get started on them now. ~Write shit down. This is a general umbrella tip, but it helps a ton to keep you on track. Anyone can write. Record your to-do list for the day (things that require taking action). Record a list of things you ate to get the best diet. Record the hours you put in to working out (I use a count-down method. As in, I plan on getting in 400 hours of working out in 5 months). Record your accomplishments, your good traits, the things you're good at (like Anthony said), your goals, your dreams, your purpose for life, your bucketlist, your personal conclusions and philosophies. Everyone has their own opinion. Being different is acknowledging that you have your own views. Then, tape that shit right where you can see it. ~I'm sorry to break this to you, but appearances sometimes do matter. I'm not saying you need to go all-out, but make yourself tidy, neat, presentable. It helps immeasurably as people judge you based on your appearance. A true and sad fact of life. Working out will help so much. Keep to it. Make sure your hair is clean and orderly. Trim it, comb it if you have to. This doesn't make you shallow or 'girly'. Your nails. Keep them cut so you don't need to worry about getting dirt under them. Wash your face, brush your teeth before you sleep and after you wake up! If you're not gifted with naturally clear skin, buy some acne face wash with the money from the job. Clear complexions really make someone more, hm, can't find the term for it, put-together, beautiful, presentable. This is why girls wear makeup. Learn to shave your face well. I'd help you out on this if I were a guy. Invest in deodorant. You don't have to be the guy with the obnoxious-smelling cologne, but the alternative isn't that great either, really. I believe there's deodorant (get one with anti-perspirant if sweating is a problem) out there that doesn't smell like much. Posture. Observe others. Correct yourself. As for clothing, this is biased, but the shoes and pants really do make an outfit. More practically, how you wear them is just as important. I've seen people who wore non-super fancy brand clothing with such confidence that they might have been just as, if not more, attractive than people with such brand-name clothing. ~Eat healthy! It'll help you in the future when you're successful. It'll add years to your life. ~Use Bing rewards. You'll be searching a lot. Might as well get an Amazon gift card or that tasty looking $15 Red Envelope gift card (same amount of Bing points required, so, hey, maybe get something off of that to sell for a slightly reduced price to friends who need a gift for their mothers, or give the item to these lovely parents you speak of). ~Follow Quora's self-improvement topic if you don't already! There is so much you can learn. More than I can help you with. There's always something you can improve and this is where you can find out where you are lacking and how you can fix it. But, as with all things, put practice before reading. ~In the meantime, soak up as much information as you can. Learn, learn, learn. Work hard in school, it really does make a difference. Getting A's most of the time is just doing the homework and caring enough to understand the material. If you can understand the material and review it some before tests, you can most definitely get A's. Grades will help your resume. Maybe you consider it stupid. It might be, but it's a form of evaluation. It's how people predict your potential and you will need this. Making grades is not as hard as it seems. It just requires work. In studying for a test, you should review the materials until they are committed to memory (vocabulary, science with facts instead of math and calculations, etc.) or until you understand the concept completely, through and through and are able to apply it to any problem (math, physics, etc.) Read the textbook, do practice problems, don't give up-- learn it using different methods (online videos, have someone explain it to you, read lessons online, etc) until you get it. Those people you see getting good grades are usually not naturals. They have put in work and you can do the same. Read and watch other things besides success stories sometimes. Pick up biographies, philosophical books, documentaries, periodicals, Atlas Shrugged (an anonymous mentioned), a novel, a classic. Go through Quora's recommended book lists and read those. For a teenager, for now, if you're reading classics, you're quite different. For periodicals, don't worry too much about being informed about every aspect of the news, but rather stick to business, science and culture. That's how you make news. By taking what you read from those things and applying it to your own life to make something out of it (I'm referring to entrepreneurship here). Culture will keep you updated with your times, which is essential to marketing. Science will keep you with new trends (usually). Business will show you what other people are doing and success and failures of existing 'successes'. But, the purpose of this reading should be for ideas. Formulate your own opinions on the book and take something from it. Maybe it inspired you to make money through something. I don't know. What you take out of it is your own. You will learn of yourself in the process and discover your own interests. ~Work with me. Message me sometime through Quora. I'll help you out if you have questions (step 4 was terribly difficult to explain; I got carried away too) or if you need advice or ideas of what to do. I'm often times really busy with things I do and events going on and things I'm already committed to, so when I have ideas of what I could do to make money or if I find opportunities while randomly reading around online, I am usually unable to make time for it, which is saddening. I'll gladly give these ideas and opportunities to you, if you're interested, of course. You also mentioned how your friends wouldn't be of much help in regards to your dreams of success. Find people outside of your circle that could help push you to be a better person. Talk to them, get to know their views of life. If they're really impressive, even small associations with them can help you. I'm, ironically, in the same situation. The people around me aren't exactly the best people to help me be a  better person. Honestly, I'm more of a listener-supporter figure to them. I would be honored to talk about success and such things with such an ambitious, albeit insecure (you really shouldn't have anything to be insecure about), person as you. I still have to figure out how Quora really works, but I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can. In conclusion, You'll need to work hard. Luck is made out of hard work. You want it enough so fucking get it, go fucking own the world for yourself. Best of luck, Jennifer. Credentials (sorry for the vagueness): two-time All-State in my sport, nominated for All-American top 5% of my class currently working on a large fundraiser event as a sponsorship coordinator raised $2k through an event I organized at age 15 interesting-ness is all relative active in school extra-curriculars won business plan competitions a tumblog, which is in its baby stage

Your situation is very similar to what mine was and still is. My parents went through a lot and I have always wanted to solve their financial problems. It's tough and requires lot of patience and planning. As others have mentioned, stop underestimating yourself and don't self pity yourself. Self pity will erode all your confidence, so stop it immediately. I did the following and hope it helps you 1. You are young (late teens) and realise that it's a big strength. Take up a job, any job. The economy is bad, but keep looking, you'll find one. This will give you confidence more than anything. It's the first step to overcome your social anxiety. I had my first job at 17 in a computer store for less than minimum wage, but it boosted my confidence a lot. Also, the money helps a bit. 2. Since you read lot of books and sites like quora etc, you should have a lot of information on a wide range of topics. Use that as a conversation starter, it'll help you make some friends. 3. Although it is important to find your passion and pursue it, remember that in your situation many fields of career maybe impractical to follow. I had and still have , huge interest in astronomy and as a kid always dreamt of being an astronomer/astrophysicist. Had I done that, it would havd been the stupidest thing to do financially. Learn to love what you do, whatever it is. Something that will set you apart from the rest when you get a job is your quality of work, and that can only developed if you learn to respect and love all tasks. A quote from "Atlas Shrugged", "There are no lousy jobs, only lousy people who dont do their job." 4. Force yourself into social situations which make you uncomfortable. This world is made of people and most successful people have very good social skills. Some are born with it, the less fortunate ones like us have to acquire it through practice. This may sound not all that important at your age, but as you'll grow older it's very important. Interaction with people is also a very good way to learn about what steps to take in order to progress. 5. Be prepared to work very hard. If you are not good at academics, push yourself. This sounds cliched, but it always works. Good acads may not solve all your problems, but it will open many avenues. It is of course easier said than done, but you have to do it for success. At your age you can lose some sleep, study hard and improve your understanding. 6. Stop comparing yourself with your peers. We are all born separately and are all different people. There will be many who achieve success early and effortlessly, but remember that their success does not mean your failure. It's not a zero sum game, everyone builds their own destiny. Hope this helps.

Its simple. Read something no one else is reading, think something no one else is thinking, and do something no one else is doing. PS: Dad's advice. I love it.