for example, one person was placed in a troubled teen program because her mother found her choice in boyfriends unacceptable
Creepy indeed.
I was a victim of the troubled teen industry… I turned 13 there and was there for 11 months. Definitely unethical practices, and very physically demanding.
Ran away from home a few months after being released and never went back.
How did life go afterwards?
Homeless on and off until I turned 18 which was tough at times but I think it’s easier to be homeless when you’re young… I traveled a lot and had a lot of interesting experiences. Then when I turned 18 I started to get serious about life and I managed to find a medium sized company which gave me a lot of opportunity. By 24 I had a corporate job pretty high in the company when I went into partnership with the companies’ marketing director.
Having experienced extended periods with no food or shelter, and also having that strict discipline drilled into me during those 11 months at ‘camp’, I think I was uniquely prepared to focus entirely on achieving some pretty big dreams.
With a lot of perseverance and a lot of luck, everything turned out pretty good. Own my own companies, on track to retire young.
Everyone tells me I should write a book but I am not the best writer.
This sounds book worthy IMO. I’d write it for you but that would take a lot of time and you’d basically have to hire me to do that since I couldn’t really do a big project like that while working. It’d also take a lot of your time with interviewing and also time from your friends and people you’ve spent time with.
