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Autism and Entrepreneurship

A

annalaurabrown

Well-Known Member
Do you work a job or work for yourself? Have you tried working a job and found that it just didn't work out? I know this is certainly the case for me. I've decided that creating my own life and income is the only way to go. If you have a business, I want to hear from you for my podcast.
 
I've done both, but I currently run my own business from home. It does make life easier.
 
I buy and sell equities. Learned to crunch corporate numbers underwriting commercial insurance many years ago. I answer to no one but myself and the IRS.

I have the most basic stress of trying to survive in many circumstances well beyond my control, but I also avoid all the daily stresses of having to be responsible to or interacting with others. I like being my own boss and setting my own hours. Even at extraordinary risk.
 
I am a mother of a 20 year old son with Asperger’s. Finding help is like finding a needle in a haystack. Anyway, we have a dilemma coming up and we, (My husband, myself and our son) don’t know what to do. We are retired military so until he turns 21 he is considered a dependent with all benefits. We have figured out the medical side, because we just have to pay a small amount extra to keep him on our plan. However, his job currently is working at the base grocery store bagging groceries for tips which really for now has been ideal. As long as he is a dependent he can continue to work once he turns 21 he loses his id card unless of course he is enrolled in school full time. He doesn’t know what he wants to do, he does know he doesn’t want to waste any more time in school. He spent 3 semesters in school and $40,000 and failed 90% of them. He doesn’t seem to see the importance of us taking action now and not in December when he turns 21. I have tried to explain to him:

1. If he doesn’t go to school he must pay rent, therefore he must have a job

2. He doesn’t have to have his whole life “career” figured out right now, just something to make a decent wage.

3. He does have choices, he could sign up for full time classes and retain his id and his current job or find a new job.

Any ideas????? Those of you adults Aspies’s, please give this old NT mom some grace, I am just wanting to help him and I don’t know how. ;-)
 
Can he enroll in a school that offers online classes? It took me 5.5 years (and almost as many majors) to graduate college, even though I am very intelligent. For me, it was the actual getting to class. I'd get absorbed in something else at home (I lived alone for 4.5 of my college years, not a roommate type) and lose track of time and not be able to get to class on time. I had a true phobia of walking into class when everyone was already there, so I'd just not go. My issue was attendance. I did best with two classes, scheduled one first thing in the morning and then the next immediately following, and then going to work in the afternoons. A part-time class load was great for me. Online classes were few and far between until I got to grad school. Those really worked for me because I could get my work done at my own pace and in my own home.
 
Year 1 after High School he went to a reputable Art school, lived in dorms etc. Epic fail, he didn't get to most of his classes and when he did, he didn't do the work required to pass. $30,000 later. Year 2 he went to local community college and took 2 online courses, both failed and 2 campus courses which he failed 1 and passed the other. The online classes he missed to many assignments because he had trouble navigating the website. My question to Aspies's everywhere...is it wrong to have him take the online classes if he wants to try again and "micromanage" him in order to keep him on track with assignments etc. I felt initially that I needed to let him "be an adult" and do it on his own.
 
I would love to find customers for my audio restoration avocation but nobody is interested.:( that is the extent of my entrepreneurial aspirations.
 
Have you considered disability services? If he's officially diagnosed, you should be able to get special accommodations for him at whatever school he attends, as well as probably a counsellor to help him along.
 
I've often considered entrepreneurship, as I feel it would suit me best, but am so terrible at managing the business side of things, that I often worry it will be a failure. I do want to try it one days though.
 
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