My name is Philip, and im 28 years old. My circumstances are kind of unusual but I'll give some background details. (really long story)

After finishing high school I went through a very long period of searching for jobs and applying to different places. Just for basic entry level type roles.

I very rarely received any call backs, and the ones that I did receive ended up not going anywhere. At the time my frustration was really intense as you can imagine and I believe it created a negative cycle.

Over the years it lead me to decide to go abroad for other opportunities that I couldn't create while in the states. I was told about the possibility of teaching English in Asian countries and the different benefits that come with it.

At the time I felt like I had no other options, so I committed myself to the new goal. I got my family to agree to help me relocate to Japan. I had some of the best and worst moments of my life there but I gained a lot of personal growth from it.

To summarize, upon arriving the difficulties that I wanted to flee from in America followed me to Japan in terms of finding work. However at least in Japan I got tons of interviews. Almost every job that I applied for hired me right after. Which seems like a great thing but every time I would sign a work contract the offer would be taken away or I would never be given a starting date.

As the months went on my family could no longer support me while in that country. I could have decided at that point to return to America but I didn't want to go back to the same situation.

I decided that I needed to find my own students to teach english if I was going to survive in Japan. I took my last 4 dollars and bought a small poster paper and green marker.

I wrote in terrible looking Japanese, that "I am from Los Angeles, and I can help you learn English." I took the sign and stood in front of the nearest train station with thousands of people staring at me haha. I stood there for a few hours and some people came to small chat with me a bit to test my Japanese speaking.

Eventually an old man came up to me and asked me where I am from and some other basic questions. He then reached into his pocket and gave me 150 dollars on the spot. I thanked over an over. And I walked home crying because that whole day I didn't have any money for food lol.

That was the beginning of my English teaching business and from that point I was able to build up a good number of students to teach and survive.

Eventually my stay in japan had to come to an end because I did not have a long term visa to stay in the country. So now I am back in Los Angeles I've been here for about 6 months now. Unfortunately I am back in the same situation as before I left the country. The difference now is that I get interviews which is a surprise lol. Also I lost a ton of weight while living in japan so I'm sure that plays a role.

**So the for actual advice I'm asking is how do I create any level of success) in terms of earning a living) if the normal or conventional methods constantly fail?

The only time I ever had any financial success was in Japan and my English teaching. I talk to different kinds of people and listen to different perspectives. In japan people saw that I was going far beyond what other foreigners would do in japan to earn a living and a lot of them respected me and wanted to help me because of that.

In America my desire to improve and gain knowledge seems to be looked down on to be honest. I can go to different businesses or stores and ask about a job and I am immediately rushed out of the store or told they are not hiring.

Often times I meet people who will gravitate towards me and ask me about my situation in life. They love the stories I tell about Japan and what it took to survive there lol. People even offer to help me out with finding a job or offering to teach me a skill that they have but when I follow up, they disappear.

How do I become a person that people want to help or teach? I get free drinks and food when I go out from random people which is awesome but that won't change the direction of where my life is headed.

Right now I am living with my family member but the arrangement we have could be canceled at anytime. From my perspective, I feel like fate or destiny doesn't want me to work a regular job however I don't know what direction to go in lol. I'm 28 years old and I can't even find a way to be independent without going 5000 miles across the globe.

I'm sorry this is a ton to read through but thanks for listening. Had to leave out of ton of details because it would be too much to post. Anyone can PM me, ill respond.