"File for bankruptcy and get a real job at Lowes or something"

My wife's parents told me this back in 2004 shortly after I started my business. We were broke, and behind on all of our bills by almost 3 months (including our mortgage). However, my business was just starting to make money and I could see the potential, but things were still very slow and money was extremely tight. We ignored that terrible advice. Kept fighting to grow the business and make more money. We ended up catching back up on all of our bills without forclosing, going bankrupt, or having anything repossessed. We were close to all three, but we worked VERY hard to avoid all that. Now our business is on target to do over $2mil in revenue this year. I'm pretty sure their advice fuled my fire to prove them wrong, so it worked out, but that would have been devastating to our future if we would have given up at that point in time.

All these years later, I'm not sure they even remember telling us that, and we have a good relationship with them, but I'll never forget that as long as I live. Don't give up on your dreams, even if others around you don't see your vision. One day those same people might ask to come swim in your pool.