One of my earliest childhood memories was of how much I hated when my Mother would recruit me to go to one of my neighbor's houses and ask to borrow a cup of sugar or whatever it was that she needed to borrow.  My mother had eight children, but someone, I was usually always the one that she would call on to do what I felt was this unpleasant thing because I believe that she intuitively knew that I was the one that liked asking people for help the least of all of her children.  Yes, we were poor, but my childhood was in my mind a very happy one.  But happy though it was, I still pushed myself hard to do all of the things that I was taught to do to improve the odds of my success in life.  I was taught to work hard in school; and I did just that--graduating from high school with top honors and going on to earn several degrees and managing to pile up many more academic accolades along the way.  And at the end of that road, after all of my hard work, how disheartening it has been for me to find that all of those doors that I was told that education would surely open wide for me, are still firmly closed.  It seems that I can't catch a break in life and I am fighting hard not to become totally depressed about all of this.  The question that I have been asking myself is, what do you do when you've done your very best and things still don't work out for you?  I am disheartened, but I have not toally given up hope, (because in the word of the famous song, while hope is frail it really is hard to kill); And that brings me here, to the aidpage to do that thing that I have found it so hard to do my whole life--to ask for help.  I have put a lot of thought into this, and what I figure I should do at this point since I am in dire straits is instead of continuing to send out zillions of resumes and letters of application (in vain), that I should take a more aggressive approach to my finances and start my own business.  Since I do not have a job, there is no way that I can possibly raise these funds unless someone out there in Cyberland reading this can and/or is willing to offer me assistance in accomplishing my goal of opening a business of my own.  I am finding it hard to ask for help here, but I suppose that it is a bit easier because I am not asking for a hand-out but, I am asking for a handup instead.  Any assistance that you can offer me will be much appreciated.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.