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12+ Entrepreneurs Reveal the Mistake That Cost Them Their Business

Have you ever dreamed of starting your own business? While some people find success, it’s often a lot harder than it looks. One wrong move could end up costing you everything you’ve invested in. But you just might have a leg up if you read through these 15 honest confessions about the mistakes that were made by others who have gone before you.

#15. In hindsight.

“Entered an over saturated market with zero business, marketing or sales experience.

In hindsight, my chosen niche wasn’t specific enough. I’ve had a follow up idea from the experience I had, but I have zero intention of actually executing it.”

#14. Friends.

“Hired friends.

Didn’t do that this time around. Worked out.”

#13. Lessons.

“In the startup community + have watched many a start up fly and fail (mine is still breathing). Here’s what I’ve learned:

Pick your co-founders like you pick a marriage partner — with the expectation that they may very well screw you over anyway.
Don’t invent a product for a problem that doesn’t exist. If you do, you will have to spend a lot of time inventing the problem as well.
Take your experience and apply it to what you want to do. Don’t jump in to app building b/c all the cool kids are doing it.
Don’t get in it for the money. You will likely be working for AT LEAST two years without adequate (or any) pay.
Don’t try to be a BFF to your employees/boss. It seldom ends well.

Specificity and focus are your friends. You can’t be or do everything for everyone.
Your first customers are your employees. If they don’t see value in you or what you’re selling, you’re in trouble.
Working for smart, kind people is totally okay. There are hundreds of ways to do cool things, without entering the startup world.
Take care of yourself first. Throwing everything you have into a biz is no good if you destroy your health in the process.”

#12. Be prepared.

“Lots of things:

I sold clothing wholesale:

Had sales experience, but came from a different industry. It took a little bit to learn the law of the land and how things worked.
Made home base where I did (and also currently) live instead of moving to a more regional hub. This caused extra travel time and expenses when I could have been closer to my accounts. There’s a reason why reps work out of those hubs.
I was not prepared for the amount of stores who wouldn’t pay. If an account gives you trouble about placing a deposit or prepaying then you’re probably not getting paid.
Some of the lines we represented were off trend. We were newbies in the market so we kind of went with what we could get, but there are reasons that longer established and larger firms were repping certain lines and not repping other lines.
I didn’t watch my business partner close enough and took him at his word. He was a lying piece of shit who was out for himself and he no problems screwing me over and running off with some of the money we did have.
I learned a lot though, and while I don’t own a business currently, I certainly will be more prepared for when I try again.”

#11. Self-confidence.

“Lack of self-confidence.

This was about 23 years ago, when the Web was really taking off. I knew it was going to be huge, and I knew that businesses really needed to be online, but my lack of self-confidence kept me from convincing others. It really held me back, and after a year and a half I had to find a full-time job.

But I don’t regret the time I spent trying; in 2001 the web development firm I was working for (and we had done some really high-profile projects) burst in the dot-com bubble and the resulting recession kept me from finding another full-time position. But everything I had learned from them, plus what NOT to do the first time, meant that I was able to freelance for the next 8 years.

So I always tell people to go for it. It may or may not work out, but you learn so much and it takes you where you need to be. It sucked but I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything.

Edited because time flies.”

#10. Legalities.

“Years ago I tried freelancing hooking up electronics. I made a decent amount of mistakes but nothing totally crazy. I also most definitely didn’t know as much as I should have before starting something like that. But my biggest mistake was not getting bonded in any way. I had a really close call where a customer threatened to send me to court for breaking some electronics I didn’t even touch. I doubt he would’ve won but who knows what I do know is I would’ve have been able to afford to find out. I shut it all down after that.”

#9. No art collectives.

“I started an independent engineering consultant firm that was made up of only me. Turns out I spent so much time trying to get old customers to pay me, that I didn’t spend enough time looking for new customers. Side note: I will never ever sign a contract with an “Art Collective” ever again. They agreed to pay me a flat rate ($5000) to automate a project they were building that involved some motors spinning some disks or something. The job took me maybe 4 hours not counting the travel (but hey they agreed to a flat rate). They never sold the piece and never paid me, even though my contract had no language tying my compensation to project success. Anyway they dissolved the “Collective” and reopened it under a new name… and I never got my money. Repeat that story about 4 more times and I went back to working for someone else.”

#8. Too naive.

“I was too naive. As an engineer, I just wanted to build a product for the customer and then hope that it would sell itself and I would be on my Merry way. So I built dispatching software for a local truck company. After I finish building it out, I do some research and there are at least 10 other competitors with better fetaures and have been around longer.

Then I try cold calling other truck companies in the hopes of selling my software to them. Lo and behold, they were already using a competitor’s software to power their operations. I also had to price myself lower in order to try to be a compelling offering. So now, here I am with 1 customer getting paid $150 a month.

In essence, I fucked up in not doing enough research, not coming up with a more unique product, trying to be 5% better that competitors, not being able to get help on the sales end, and much more. The only thing I did well was to build good software.

Now, I wake up everyday depressed, not knowing what the right next step is, running out of money and time. The hardest part is the loneliness of it all. I miss having a team.”

#7. Follow the money.

“When it came to marketing channels, I didn’t follow what the numbers said was working.

I had my heart set on building a blog to promote my products. But all my sales success came from influencer marketing. If I had to do it over, I would have dropped the blog and put everything I could into the marketing channels that worked.”

#6. Pick a lane.

“I’ve launched multiple pen names for smut, and a fair few of them have just died in the water. (At least, I hope that’s water…)

The biggest failing was assuming that I could try and use one name for all the fetishes I wrote about, assuming that people who bought in one niche would buy in others. Not so. People like what they like, and they like to know they can buy more of it consistently.

Pick a lane and stick with it. It’s a lot easier to build a reputation for quality in one niche than all niches simultaneously.”

#5. Year one projections.

“I didn’t have enough money to operate the first year at a loss. Seriously, it is so important to have that. I mean technically my business could have survived, but I’d have starved. When factoring in year one projections: don’t forget your salary!”

#4. Market research.

“I never started a business but I work in accounting and have seen a lot of businesses succeed/fail. I think the most simple thing that goes wrong is just people often don’t really do market research and start a business that they are passionate about but it’s for a product or service that the people in that area don’t want or need. Also I think some people have good idea but don’t have any or enough experience in owning or running a business and underestimate the work it takes.”

#3. More than drive.

“Didn’t have enough starting capital. So we shifted our business plan to bring in some small capital to save up for our major plans. During that process, I realized my business partners were not what I was looking for. They just didn’t have the right mentality for what we were doing. The drive was there, but drive isn’t all we needed.

So I bailed out of it before I lost anymore of my money.”

#2. The wrong investor.

“I got the wrong investor….my dad.

My dad was the kind of parent who couldn’t trust me, and unfortunately still thinks he’s a fellow kid who totally understands today’s tech scene when he’s…….well. Let’s just say his idea of a great app is to load everything with ads, create 50 unnecessary additional steps to force everyone to see what our app can do, and oh…the 80s silver, blue & yellow gradient effect everywhere.”

#1. Get it in writing.

“I trusted my banker without getting anything in writing.

I had been thinking for a while about leaving the law firm I was with to start my own practice. I spoke with my banker who said it would be no problem for me to get a loan or line-of-credit if I needed it. I had some savings, but I relied pretty heavily on her representations. We had a great history and she had never let me down before. Big mistake.

So I started my own practice, did okay for a few months, then hit some slow months. I went to talk to her and she said there was no way she could do anything to help me until I had shown two years of profit. I got angry and asked her what about our previous conversation when she said that she had multiple ways she could help me. She claimed she never said anything of the sort. I remember standing up and leaning over her desk and saying “You told me you could get me a $15,000 line of credit within 24 hours based on my customer history with the bank. And now you’re telling me I dreamed this conversation?” She basically said she would never had made such a specific promise, and I clearly was trying to bully her. I left her office and immediately went to another branch to close all my accounts.

Every time I think of that conversation, I get furious. I had sent her God knows how many customers over the years, had a long history of banking at her branch, had been to lunch with her numerous times, yet she called me a liar when I had to ask her for a help for the first time in the history of our relationship.

In hindsight, I was stupid and a little arrogant. I knew it would take a couple of years to truly establish my practice, but I thought I had enough in savings and current clients that I could make it. When she told me about the financial options I would qualify for, I knew I had enough of a safety net. I made it 14 months before I had to close up shop and find a job (happy ending though: LOVE my current job).

Still, it’s a little frustrating to be on the verge of making it on your own and have the rug pulled out from under you by someone you considered a reliable ally.”

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Homeless People Share What They Mean By “Anything Helps”

Seeing homeless people on the street is hard. They have different signs-some are funny, others are sad, but it’s hard to know what to give when you see that very common sign: anything helps.

So here’s some advice from people who have been there.

#15. When you have nothing.

“Anything to help get clean when showering is not available, like cleansing wipes and deodorant especially. Chapstick, especially in the winter. Women usually need pads or tampons, they are so expensive when you have nothing.”

#14. My last handout.

“Deodorant, water, healthy snacks, razor/shaving cream, couple bucks for food/gift card to taco Bell… I was once given a gift card to the Dollar store that I felt changed my life. They had given me $20 and I was able to buy toiletries, laundry detergent and food. It was my last handout before I got my life together.”

#13. A few impractical things.

“When I was homeless food was the least of my problems. ANyone can afford a couple Mcdick Mcdoubles to keep themselves alive. You know what woulda helped? Loonies for laundry and detergant to keep my clothes from smelling like piss, Batteries for my cd walkman so i could listen to Watch out by Alexisonfire (some of the tracks helped me turn sadness into anger, which helped motivate me to get my shit together), A bible (if your not religious i get it, but motivational reading material for lonely nights is what im getting at here), a monthly bus pass, day passes to the YMCA so i can take a shower and maybe use their plus rooms for a good steam room sesh, Let me put your phone number on my resume (I didnt have a home or a phone so when i applied places i had nothing for them to get ahold of me so i had to tell them i could be found on the waterfront by the picnic tables). Maybe none of this is practical, but i needed a few impractical things to get my foot in the door….which i did…and im fine now.”

#12. That personal touch.

“I used to work with homeless people. For women, you can do up little hygiene packs with pads, tampons, feminine wipes and a little roll-on deodorant. Pads are expensive as fuck and pretty much all women need them.

For a more generic approach, little care packs are doable too. A bottle of water, a snack, a pair of clean socks, bars of soap, a toothbrush and a little toothpaste will go a long way. Grocery gift cards are better than money too. A handwritten note slipped inside the pack too can give it that personal touch.”

#11. Quite cold.

“Not homeless, but a great idea I thought worth sharing: A young kid and his parent in my area recently started a charity drive that’s become quite popular. Donors and volunteers wrap warm winter coats around trees with “Take me, I’m free!” signs. It gets quite cold here and it’s a way to get coats to homeless people on their own terms. It’s been pretty successful from what I’ve heard.”

#10. My wife and kids.

“Homeless guy approached my uncle 15 years back asking for food outside a hotel. Uncle offered to pay his bill.

He said “Can I pack it and take it home, my wife and kids are hungry too?”

Uncle asked the cashier to pack 4 plates of Biryani (costly food with meat), the homeless guy said, “buy me rice and curry for the same amount we’ll get more food for the same price”

He was genuinely homeless.

And also, the amount of money my uncle spent for buying him food was like almost half the price, he and his friends had spent there before the homeless guy came.

We eat junk food and drink coffees throughout the day without giving it a thought. When in the same amount of money these homeless guys can spend almost a week with food.

#9. During the cold nights.

“I’ve never been homeless nor personally known anyone who was homeless. But one time I passed blankets around downtown Chicago and the most common requests were gloves and hand warmers, ESPECIALLY hand warmers. They may be temporary, but they really help out during the cold nights.”

#8. When you’re still stuck in it.

“Being talked to like a normal person is really, really awesome.

Money is good. But it only goes so far. And some people are scammers or after drugs. And even if not money just buys you some food and supplies you need.

What you really need is an address. And clean clothes. And a way to put together a resume and clean clothes to wear to interviews. And work to do in the meantime.

If there are good services in your area helping someone to them can help them. Resistance doesn’t mean they are one of the bad ones either. It could also mean they have been burned enough that they don’t really trust people anymore.

In the end I say support housing first policies and then point homeless people to where they can get involved in it. If you want to spend money then donate to organizations that help homeless people get in to a home and then help them get back in to the workforce. Or a meal. There are homeless that will take the meal. Food and things like tampons help when you’re still stuck in it.”

#7. Much-needed.

“For a female homeless person, I suggest tampons or pads, and feminine wipes. Having her period, living on the streets with no means to take care of herself or keep clean, is difficult and humiliating. It’s a basic human requirement, and those items are kind of expensive, but very much-needed.”

#6. Clean off.

“I was homeless for about 2 years. The most helpful is food. Next is clean clothing of any kind. When you’re homeless you don’t get to wash clothes or have clean ones to put on. Shoes! I’d walk the soles clean off in several months.”

#5. A genuine smile and…

“A genuine smile and food. If you have the time take them to a McDonald’s and talk to them. It was about 6 years ago someone did that for me and it helped me out so much more than I can express.”

#4. Hygiene.

“Probably a small hygiene pack, water and a snack.”

#3. The basics.

“Not homeless but as someone who has made kits the last 4 years to hand out (I keep a stack of totes in my car at all times) I give these things:

Each package has:

BPA free reusable water bottle

Peanut butter crackers

Cheese crackers
Lemon cookies
Dried fruit (Bananas, blueberries, cranberries)
Gum

Almonds and Cashews
Wet wipes

Sport Deodorant
Comb

SPF 30 sport sunscreen
Razor

Toothbrush & holder
Toothpaste
Pack of tissues

Sewing kit
First Aid kit

Lip balm

Tylenol
LED light w/batteries (120 hour tealight)
Ink pen
Stamped envelope
Blank card

Personal note from my family

Winter gets socks, hand warmers, gloves, hats, and those little silver space blankets

I never know everyone’s circumstances so I try to cover the basics and figure they can hopefully trade if they don’t need something.”

#2. Ibuprofen.

“a pass to a $10 gym so they have access to a hot shower everyday, socks, a bottle of ibuprofen…”

#1. Socks.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Socks. SOCKS SOCKS SOCKS. I didn’t care if they were too big, at least they were on and protecting my feet. Women, give hygiene products. Those never get donated unless it’s small bursts during awareness things.

If you want to take it a step further, make little packs with underwear/boxers (again, best to be too big than too small), socks, toothbrushes and paste (my teeth are permanently damaged and I’m looking at implants/dentures at 24), small snacks, a reusable water bottle, and little Mio water squirts, just because sometimes I liked being able to slap a few drops in my water and “treat myself”.

If you live in a bus-laden city, bus passes are good, too! Bus passes were always a pain! If a shelter had them, they metered them and only gave you one use only tickets.. once got stranded on the edge of town that way.”

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This Texas Church Offered “Free Mom Hugs” at Pride Parade for Anyone Who Needed One

We all know how satisfying and powerful a good mom hug can be, and this Austin church made it their mission to give one out to anyone who needed one at a recent Pride Parade.

Jen Hatmaker, a mom and blogger who helped give out hugs, shared the heartfelt images from the parade on her Instagram account. She explained how the church showed up ready to offer everything from “Free Mom Hugs, Free Dad Hugs, Free Grana Hugs, and Free Pastor Hugs like it was our paying job.”

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

Jen and other members of the Austin New Church were inspired by the Free Mom Hugs movement created by Sara Cunningham. Church members showed up ready to spread the love with their warm embrace. “And when I say hugs,” Jen explained, “I mean THE KIND A MAMA GIVES HER BELOVED KID.”

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

“Our arms were never empty,” she wrote. “We ‘happy hugged’ a ton of folks, but dozens of times, I’d spot someone in the parade look our way, squint at our shirts and posters, and RACE into our arms.” Apparently, there were a lot of folks in attendance who really, REALLY needed a good mom hug.

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

Among the comments that she and other members received were things like, “‘I miss this,’ ‘My mom doesn’t love me anymore,’ and ‘Please just one more hug.’”

If that doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies inside (while also breaking your heart a little), I don’t know what will. As someone who hasn’t been able to go back home and give my mom a good hug in a few years, I can definitely relate to how strong the craving for a good mom hug – the kind that gives off pure, unconditional love – can be.

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

Strained relationships with unaccepting parents are sadly all too common within the LGBTQ community. Jen and her fellow church members made sure to let every single person they hugged know that they were “impossibly loved and needed and precious.” It’s the kind of simple, free act of kindness that can make all the difference in someone’s day.

Photo Credit: Jen Hatmaker

“We hugged until our arms fell off. This is what we are doing here, what we are here for,” she wrote. “The last pic is what you look like at the end of Pride covered in glitter, sweat, and more than a few tears.”

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What Causes Red Tide – And How Do We Stop It?

If you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, you know that red tide has been particularly bad this year. The problem has been increasing in severity over the past several years, but this year it has led to the death of 267 tons of marine life along the Gulf Coast, according to The Guardian.

Photo Credit: melvil, CC BY-SA 4.0

But what is it that turns the ocean the color of blood and decimates marine populations in its path?

The simple answer is that it’s a particular kind of algae that multiplies and thrives in such large quantities it becomes visible to the naked eye. It’s color is because of the depth at which the algae lives and the fact that green and blue frequencies are absorbed while red is reflected.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

Karenia brevis, which is the type of algae in red tide found on the Gulf Coast, produces toxic chemicals that cause symptoms in humans ranging from sneezing and eye irritation all the way to vomiting and difficulty breathing. For fish, shellfish, turtles, and other wildlife, coming into contact with too much of the toxin often results in death.

The worst red tide on record happened in 1946 and resulted in the deaths of more than 50 million fish, along with hundreds of dolphins and sea turtles. In bad years, tourism is also impacted, since people generally enjoy their strolls on the beach sans mass corpses, and the local fishing industries can also take a big hit – to the tune of an estimated $1 billion.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Scientists are still working to determine what’s caused the latest bloom of red algae to explode and linger along the Gulf Coat, with leading culprits thought to be heavy rainfall, rising ocean temperatures and fertilizer runoff, all combined with wind patterns that are helping it stay put.

Florida is also dealing with a rise in a different type of blue-green algae that smells like raw sewage and has at times been bad enough to warrant the governor declaring a state of emergency. For this type of algae, scientists again blame warmer waters and fertilizer runoff from local farming communities.

So, while the red tide is “just” algae, it is still deadly – not only for the marine life directly affected, but for the people who live and work in the tourism and fishing industries that support many families on the coast.

And yes, there may be something we can do about it in the future…if we’re not too late to reverse the conditions that allow it to thrive in the first place.

h/t: Mental_Floss

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15 Men Reveal the Reason Why They Didn’t Ask Women on a Second Date

Dating is a strange thing. You don’t want to come on too strong if you are interested, but you also don’t want to offend the other person if you aren’t. The time between the first and second date has to be the most stressful, for sure.

Men on AskReddit shared why decided NOT to ask women out for a second time after that very important first date.

1. That’s odd

“I drove her home because she didn’t have a car at that time, and she asked we stop for an errand… to pickup matching T-Shirts she had designed for her and her ex.”

2. She was right

“I once went to a movie as a first date with a girl. She got there late and the movie had already started. She then wanted to talk during the movie in the middle of the crowded theater. I didn’t shush her or anything, but everything was a one-word answer, trying to end the conversation. She got up halfway through and said I was obviously not interested in her. She was right.”

3. Snoozefest

“I went on a date with a lady I met online. She talked about three things on this date and little else.

Her pets.

Her ex.

The last time she had gastro.

There was no second date.”

4. The worst

“Went to dinner; she was on her phone the entire time texting. Even when we were talking. Figured she was just in it for a free dinner cause really what’s the point of agreeing to date if you’re not going to try to get to know the person.”

5. Red flag

“She had a 1 yr old and told me about a recent nasty divorce, No problem until she told me that the divorce was due to the baby not being his…”

6. That’s not happening

” “You’d have to get rid of your cat”

And that was the end of that. Actually had 2 women tell me I’d have to get rid of my cat, pretty much immediately. F*** you, a cat is a life commitment.”

7. Complainer

“She rolled her eyes when I said she looked nice. Criticized where I chose to eat. Complained about the music we went to see. I spent the whole date anxious, assuming that she was hating every moment – because, you know, she didn’t have anything positive to say about anything. Then I get:

“I had a good time! Let’s do this again.”

Nah I’m good. I’ve got enough negativity and mixed signals coming from my own brain. I don’t need that coming from the outside too.”

8. Reading along

“When we saw “Fury” in theater she read the subtitles out loud. I’m not sure if she thought I couldn’t read them or if she needed to sound them out, but I knew at that moment no follow up was necessary.”

9. Get me outta here

“I arrived at her place and she told me to hop in her car as she just needed to drop something off at a friends house real quick. It wasn’t a friend, it was someone she had an appointment to sell those hot oil infusers and their millions of scented inserts to. I sat in a stranger’s home for 90 minutes while they smelled them all. She wanted to go to dinner afterwards and I asked her to please drop me off at the car so I could go home.

“She had a business to run.” Guess it didn’t even make it a whole first date.”

10. Family tree

“She said “Haha can’t wait for you to meet my older brother, he just got out of jail for selling heroin. ” Me: “didn’t you tell me your younger brother was addicted to heroin?” Her: “oh ya, wonder how that happened” “

11. And stuck her with the bill

“When she said “I’m so glad my fiance is still deployed…”

Nope out and left her with the bill for that dinner.”

12. Super taster

“I met a girl from my university for dinner one time and she started the date off by saying she only ate with her hands and didn’t use utensils because she’s a “super taster” and can taste the metals they’re made of. This wouldn’t have been a problem if we were eating finger foods of course, but it was a problem as I watched her eat a salmon filet.”

13. No time

“Teeth as black as the night. She didn’t have any diseases or syndromes but simply no “time” to brush her teeth.

For the record. Her photos didn’t show her teeth.”

14. Fiancé?!?

“Met her at a hospital (I was an ER patient for a hand wound, she was a phlebotomist). Asked her out to a movie and then dinner, had a really excellent talk about comics and movies. We were getting to know each other and flirting, it was clearly a date. At the end when I told her I’d like to do it again she said her fiancé probably wouldn’t be cool with it a second time.”

15. Insane in the brain

“She asked if I had any love interests still in existence. When I said no she didn’t believe me. She told me she wanted to travel the world and see old friends (who were guys) and thought that I, as a lawyer should work and pay for her travels. She was insane. She also offered to screw in her car in the first five minutes of meeting. No second date for you!”

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German Stonehenge May Have Been the Site of Human Sacrifices

When two archaeologists excavated an ancient site known as the “German Stonehenge,” they were expecting to uncover axes, animal bones, and drinking vessels. But André Spatzier and François Bertemes stumbled upon something much different – and more sinister.

Photo Credit: iStock

The duo found the dismembered bodies of 10 women and children at the site called Pӧmmelte in northeastern Germany. One body had its hands tied behind its back, and four of them suffered from skull trauma and rib fractures before death. The position of the bodies suggests they were thrown into a burial shaft. All of this evidence has caused researchers to question whether Pӧmmelte may have been used for human sacrifice. The site was used for 300 years before it was destroyed around 2050 BCE.

Photo Credit: US Air Force

Amazingly, Pӧmmelte wasn’t discovered until 1991, when it was spotted by aerial photographers after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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A Man Found an Amazing Collection of LGBTQ Artifacts Stashed Away in a Loft

When Gavin McGregor discovered two bags stashed away in his London loft, he didn’t think much about it until he took a much closer look. When he finally searched through the bags, he found that he’d stumbled upon a treasure trove of LGBTQ artifacts from the 1980s.

Photo Credit: Twitter

McGregor quickly realized that he had a significant time capsule of the LGBTQ scene.

Photo Credit: Twitter

And the second bag contained even more impressive finds.

Photo Credit: Twitter

McGregor also found the manuscript of a novel and tried to get in touch with the writer.

Photo Credit: Twitter

Bill Albert replied that he had submitted his novel to a short-lived publishing company that was run by two people: one now lived in South Africa and the other was Paud Hegarty, who had died from AIDS nearly 20 years ago. McGregor thought that the deceased Paud Hegarty might have been the man behind the artifact collection.

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

Photo Credit: Twitter

McGregor decided to donate the collection to Gay’s The Word to honor Hegarty’s legacy.

Photo Credit: Twitter

McGregor said, “I’ve received fascinating, moving, personal memories and stories from a range of people already, telling stories and sharing memories.” What a great story.

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15 People Reveal the Last Straw That Ended Their Relationship After Moving in Together

Moving in with your significant other is a major milestone. So, it only makes sense that it would be a crossroads for many couples. Some find out that they are meant to spend the rest of their lives with this person, while others decide to pack up and part ways.

AskReddit users went on the record and shared the dealbreakers that ended their relationships after they moved in with someone.

1. Not sorry

“She couldn’t say “sorry.” Dated for years and she could never admit she made a mistake. Like one time she got something out of my car at night and somehow left the passenger door open. It rained and the passenger seat got soaked; car smelled like mildew after that for as long as I owned it. I was really upset when it happened because the car was literally a week old, but the best she could do was make a joke about how a deer must have broken into my car and then not talk to me for a whole day.”

2. Dirty dirty

“He doesn’t mind dirt. I’m not obsessed with a spotless house, but poo on the toilet bowl? Dust so thick you can’t read the buttons on the TV? He was fine with that. He couldn’t stand a single messy pile of clutter but didn’t care much about filth. It was so odd for me, his house was always spotless when I came to visit. When we moved in together I realized he only bothered with that if someone he wasn’t comfortable with was coming over.

I knew it was probably bad when I picked up one of his two pairs of work pants and made a comment about how I was washing them because they were rather rank, to which he replied “oh. That’s because I haven’t washed them since I bought them”

He gets uniform allowance in July. It was December.”

3. This guy sounds like a keeper

“A female friend of mine moved in with a guy who seemed totally normal. Then a large delivery of adult sized nappies/ diapers arrived. She stuck with it. Then he insisted on wearing them, and she stuck with it. He insisted on pissing in them and getting her to change it. Dear readers, she stuck with it. She had a hip operation and couldn’t get upstairs quickly enough to meet his demands and the whole thing fell down. What some people will put up with.”

4. Alone time

“I kinda knew it beforehand, as he needed time to himself all the time and we only saw each other on weekends. But only after we moved in together I realized how much time he really needed to himself. I basically never saw him and it felt more like we were roommates.

I get how you need alone-time and time to unwind after work (I mean, so do I), but never really seeing your partner wasn’t the kind of relationship I wanted.”

5. Weirdo

“We dated for a year before moving in together but I didn’t know just how weird this guy was until I was with him 24/7. He was always doing really strange things, rearranging furniture while I was out, moving my stuff and not telling me where he put it, pissing in beer bottles and leaving them by the TV… one time he used foam sealant to seal the front door shut and we could only use the back door until we finally got it back open.

He never made an effort to get to know my family and lied about his own father dying. I eventually was like, okay, I’m outtie and moved back home and the next day he totaled the car that was in my name and immediately went out and bought a new one. When I was living with him he said he was broke and living off of credit cards, but he had apparently had a stash of money he didn’t want to tell me about. Weird dude.”

6. Attention

“She NEEDS male attention at all time which means whenever I leave the apartment she is flirting with some guy online.”

7. Definitely a dealbreaker

“He was seeing someone else at the same time as me.”

8. Crack?!?

“He used to be into drugs. No big deal, I can’t smoke because of my job, but it’s not my place to judge if someone else does.

He conveniently left out the part where he lost custody of his kids (less than a week before we started dating) for smoking crack.”

9. Classy

“That he was a totally self-absorbed. Oh, and that he peed in bottles when be was too lazy to go pee and then left them around the bedroom. F*cking heinous.”

10. Liar!

“He lied about everything. We started out long distance as pen pals (mid 90s before everyone was online). After a lot of phone calls, letters, etc. We finally met IRL when he came to visit me.

First lie, he looked nothing like he described. Fine I can forgive that. We ended up getting our own place and he just kept piling up lies. He talked me into going out to CA where his family was from. Here are some things he lied about.

His real name. His brother being a half brother. His past relationships. His family’s living conditions.

And he got away with all this lying because English was his families 2nd language and they never spoke it at home. I was always in the dark. Even if one of them wanted to say something to me, they’d say it to him and he’d tell me. They could all speak English, but they wouldn’t talk to me. It was a hard lesson. But luckily I learned it as a teenager and it taught me a lot about what red flags to look watch out for.”

11. Leave the tuna out of this

“His penchant for throwing tuna cans when angry.

Had to pay for the dent he left in the metal closet door when our lease was up. Was happy to pay, though, because that can missed my head by millimeters.”

12. You didn’t stick around?

“Gay and wanted to regularly have sex with my father. This one was held in till we got married. Noped the f*ck out.”

13. GTFO

“I didn’t know he was moving in. He was a friend’s roommate when we met but one night he came over and just didn’t leave. I asked my friend about it and they had kicked him out for being an alcoholic, screaming at like 2 a.m. and urinating in the neighbors yard. When he came back from work, I had his bag packed and told him to GTFO.”

14. Sounds like a blast

“We dated off and on for 5 months. We spent most of the time out, home time was Netflix tv series we both liked. Great times and thought I found the one.

Once she moved in it was 14 hours a day of political “news” and opinion shows which would leak into every conversation we had about any subject. The entire DVR was filled within 2 weeks with the CNN and MSNBC 6 hours of evening politics shows. Delete one to make room for something and she knew within a few hours. It was creepy obsessive, she kept a notebook with tv schedules of those shows, with tightly planned viewing times and recordings to maximize being able to watch and record it all.

There was no hint of this when I asked her to move in. We agreed on most political issues to, but it’s not something I want to discuss often. So glad when she moved out. It was so frustrating to have to cringe every time you speak a sentence because you know her next words are, “I know you don’t like politics but…” “

15. Clean it up

“Never putting clothes away. Clean, dirty, it all goes on the floor!”

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9 Cool Facts About Art

I love to paint, but I’m really, really bad at it. Still, it gives me a break from life once in a while, and that’s a good escape.

Enjoy these facts about painting, art, etc. while I try to improve my skills.

1. Very cool

Photo Credit: did you know?

2. Bob was the man

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3. They should bring this back

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4. Completely by hand

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5. Stolen

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6. Hahaha

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7. Gay Street

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8. Bob again

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9. Tiny portrait

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Ladies Share the Worst Ways Guys Have Dealt With Rejection

Whether you’re a guy or a girl, getting rejected is no fun. Reading about rejection? Now that’s a little more fun.

Lucky for us, these ladies shared their stories on AskReddit.

1. A sad story

“My sister was killed by her husband when she tried to leave him. He sat next to me in the ICU crying crocodile tears. The story he gave the police was that she shot herself. I have no faith in police. I know many are good people, but not there and not then.

Thankfully, he’s dead, too. The world is better off, I was scared it was only a matter of time until he killed someone else. I’ve got my own stories, but they pale in comparison.”

2. That old excuse

“The old You’re-Actually-A-Dumb-B***h-Who-I-Didn’t-Like-Anyway after he wrote a letter expressing his feelings about me. I politely told him that he showed a lot of courage but that I just wanted to be friends. Worst part – he was my work study partner. I was 19 years old. Looking back I should have contacted my boss who would have done something about the work partnership.”

3. Stay out of it, mom

“I finally managed to dump my emotionally abusive ex for the last time, and a couple weeks later he found out I was staying at my moms. One night he hid in the bushes in her garden and waited for her to go to bed so he could knock on my window and give me a bag full of presents.

6 months later his mom rang me and asked when I was going to put him out of his misery and get back together with him because he was becoming unbearably depressed. It’s literally been 6 months of absolutely no contact, why the hell are you all still waiting!”

4. Stalker

“He stalked me for a year and a half after I danced with him for one song in a club. Police asked him to stop, but he didn’t stop until I moved to a different country.”

5. Rager

“When I was a nanny, I was walking around with the baby in the pram and we visited a bookshop. A man in there started talking to me, and then asked me out. Very kindly, keeping my father’s advice in mind about being kind when I have to reject men when they ask me out, I said that that was a nice offer, but my boyfriend might not to be too keen on it.

His response to that was to lean in and try and kiss me. I told him to get the f**k off me, he then exploded with rage and started screaming in my face. I was saved by the bookstore employee, the man stormed out of the shop, I spent the next few hours shaking like a leaf.

What a champion.”

6. You’re not listening!

“It amazes me that two times when I rejected people, they simply refused to listen to me and kept trying to change my mind.

The first guy kept following me everywhere even after I said I wasn’t interested. One time I was having breakfast at a cafe and he walked in and sat down opposite me. I was speechless and scared and too young to make a scene. The stalking only lasted a few weeks, but it got so bad I couldn’t relax in public, I’d look behind me every few steps because he made me so paranoid.

The second guy was in my friend group at college, which in a way made it worse than the first one. I must have turned this guy down at least ten times but his persistence was ridiculous. It was like trying to swat down an immortal fly that bounced back up every time you killed it. He’d make whiny passive-aggressive comments about why we should date and ask for hugs and pretend to be close to me in front of other people, and I didn’t want to disrupt our friend group so I avoided him as much as I could and changed friend groups.”

7. Good plan

“He told me he had considered trying to get me pregnant so I would have to marry him.”

8. Melodramatic

“He sent me an email with a 3 page essay attached. It was written entirely in 3rd person recounting his first rejection by a girl named Tania at the age of 16. There were a lot of solitary beach walks, ‘she’s the perfect girl’ talk, him not talking no for answer and the story eventually ends with him drinking anti-freeze, slipping into a coma, hospitalized and eventually recuperating. Only to tell poor Tania that she could avoided his, and his parents pain by agreeing to date him. The email said “so you know what you are getting into.”

I was 19 and did not see this extreme level of crazy coming but knew I needed to really make how I felt clear. I immediately called him to reiterate that I do not want to be with him, I no longer want to be friends with him and if he contacted me again I would change my number. I let a friend of his know what was going on. 5 days later he called from a different number to tell me he was out in the country one with a gun to his head and if I didn’t agree to be with him then an there he was pulling the trigger. I lied and convinced him I had to leave because I had a family emergency (aunt sick in the hospital) but we would talk the next day. Had mutual friend call him and report back as is suspected he was full of crap. Sure enough I was right, he was totally fine.

He called the next day and with the most sing song creepy serial killer tone said “you think you’re so niiiiiice. What type of human being doesn’t agree to what someone needs when they tell you they’re going to kill themselves? You piece of trash.” I. Lost. The. Plot. Told him I’m changing my numbers, and the next time he contacts me it will be the police involved. He just laughed the whole time and told me he hopes I die alone, like I deserve.

Radio silence for 6 years until I’m getting married. I have an email from him “Hey! Wow it’s been a while! How are you? Would be so great to catch up sometime”

Psychotic. Obviously I never replied and changed my email, again!”

9. Breaking and entering

“He broke into my house and chased me into my bedroom, then spent ten minutes shouting through my locked bedroom door that I should come out and have a reasonable conversation with him, adult to adult.”

10. Blocked!

“I also once had a guy send me hundreds of text messages calling me all kinds of names, cursing me out and threatening me because I didn’t have sex with him after our entirely lackluster (first and last) date… I didn’t even bother reading beyond the first 50. Just let him go on and on until I blocked and mass-deleted. Still, it was nuts.”

11. Creeps

“I was 13 and I basically told this really old dude to screw off while he was stopped at a light shouting shit at me. Light went green. He speeds off, u-turns wildly, then comes speeding back and threatens to shoot me.

Then there was this other guy at a concert who didnt take no for answer. He pinned me against the wall and only scurried away because the police crashed the concert at nearly the same moment. The worst one about that was my friends just watching it happen, doing nothing.”

12. Whoa!

“I turned down a guy that was known for being the “popular guy” and i thought he was a bit of a idiot. When he tried to kiss me i turned my head the other way, said i wasn’t interested and walked off. He grabbed my hand, spat in my face and said I missed the best opportunity in my life and the only reason he tried to kiss me was because he pitied me.”

13. Sounds like a winner

“He called me “roofie bait” and then followed me around campus for a couple months.”

14. He was married

“This is a slightly different take but I turned a guy down for a date and he then posted a long snap story about how much he loves his WIFE that he had neglected to mention all that time.”

15. Ugh, another stalker

“We went on one date and I declined a second. A couple of days after that he called me and told me what I had been wearing that day. This went on for a couple of months. I’d literally never see him but at least a three times a week he’d know exactly what I wore.”

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