Glisch of The Sentinel StaffHOUSTON — Not far from the granite skyscrapers simmering in the haze of downtown Houston, the dreams of thousands of Texans have ended in bulldozed fields overgrown with weeds and wild summer grass.The site was supposed to have been a massive subdivision, one of hundreds that sprang up overnight when the oil industry boomed during the 1970s and early 1980s, sending this sprawling, get-rich-quick city on a seemingly endless joy ride.But the ride has long since ended, the victim of a depressed oil market that has ravaged Houston's oil-addicted economy and left vacant lots and ''For Sale'' signs as visible scars of how quickly the good times turned bad in the nation's fourth-largest city.''

There is an unbelievable freedom to owning your own company - especially one you built from the ground up.

The amount of time it takes to place a tenant in my area is unbelievable. 2 solid months to place (I usually fail at least an inspection or two) and 2 months after that to get your first paycheck (and it may not even be backdated to the move in day!).

A co worker was a recovered heroin addict.

@Alex SilangHere are numbers for you to consider.There are 9.63M millionaires in the U.S.There are 7.9M households in the U.S. with a net worth between $1M - $5M.There are 1,140,000 households in the U.S. with a networth more than $5M.There are only 350,000 households in the U.S. with a networth of $10MThere are 77,500 households in the U.S. with a networth of $30M There are less 10,000 households in the U.S. with a networth of $100Mand there are approximately 400 households in the U.S. with a networth of $1 billion.If you are in your 40s, you need a networth of $6.8 million to be in the top 1% of wealth and in your 60s you need a networth of $10 million.You have to have to be exceptional to reach $10M, but you have to unbelievably exceptional to reach $100M whether you build a company that is a game changer in the industry (Amazon, Google, Oracle, Facebook etc), exceptional investor in the equities market (Buffet / Jim Rogers / George Soros), exceptional real estate investor developing in the path of progress (Donald Bren). 

Oddly enough heroin addicts do not seem to have as high an incidence of violence while high as meth or cocaine, but be CAREFUL.

It's unbelievably flexible, you can borrow up to $50K from it for any reason (like any 401K), and you don't incur UBIT if it borrows money to make purchases.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the show Rehab Addict with Nicole Curtis.

An extended family member once had a scratch off lottery ticket addiction.

For example, as someone who is not religious, hearing the story of the Bible, the story of the Book of Mormon, the story of the Koran, the stories of the Greeks and the Romans and their gods, the story of Scientology, etc, they all sound pretty much equally believable (or unbelievable, depending on your perspective).Hearing about 72 virgins awaiting martyrs in heaven sounds no more or less far-fetched than hearing about the fiery pits of hell.