From Homeless Veteran to Successful Business Owner

Seth Shoultes is an Air Force Veteran who became a successful entrepreneur. His path to get to where he is today wasn’t an easy one. Seth struggled with homelessness after deciding to get away from the toxic situation he found himself in. Through hard work and perseverance, Seth managed to not only get back on his feet, but also build a successful software business. Links & Resources: Homeless Veteran Help ITT Technical Institute Chasing the Scream: The Opposite of Addiction is Connection Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope From the Ground Up: Building a WordPress Business Transcript Scott DeLuzio:    00:00   Hey everybody. This is the Drive On Podcast where we talk about issues affecting veterans after they get out of the military. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And now let’s get on with the show. Scott DeLuzio:    00:13    Hey everyone, thanks for tuning into the Drive On Podcast today. My guest is us shorts who is a PHP programmer and developer. He’s also one of the founders of a company called Event Espresso. Seth has been in web design and development since the early 2000s, but his journey to running a successful software business wasn’t always an easy road. Seth talked about his journey in a speech a few years ago at a conference in Las Vegas that I had the opportunity to attend.  Seth had served in the Arizona Air National Guard in the mid ‘90s and had hopes of working in the aerospace industry after getting out of the National Guard.  So, welcome to the show.  Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. Seth Shoultes:   00:59    Hi Scott. Thanks for having me.  I graduated high school in the mid 90s and went directly right from high school into the Air National Guard where I wanted to learn nondestructive inspection and stuff like that. Basically it was looking at airplanes, airplane parts and inspecting them for defaults or defects and stuff like that.  I was always interested in airplanes and aeronautics and stuff like that since I was a small child. But growing up and in my community that I was surrounded with I’ve never really felt like I was pilot material. It was always a in school and that type of thing. Later in life or in high school, I started following around the wrong crowd, getting into [trouble], facing some problems with addiction and stuff like that. Seth Shoultes:    02:08    So during high school, I always felt like I was behind in my grades and stuff like that and I never felt smart or anything like that.  I didn’t have the tools to succeed, I guess. So I went to the military as a way out of my current situation and into a career that was a lifelong career that would hopefully pan out some day and I’d be better off than I was. But once I got into the military, I really loved it.  The boot camp gave me a good foundation and a stronger community there.  Then when I got out and when I came back home from the guard after going to tech school, I started associating with some of the same people and I even found that some of the same people were with me in the guard. Seth Shoultes:    03:12    And so I fell into all those old ways of addiction and struggling with just life in general.  After a couple of years I did my time in the guard and still faced these struggles. I went on t...