In a word, I messed up.
Had a great start, won a Commonwealth Scholarship to University, did great in sports, represented my school in swimming, represented the University in Judo, in short I was just the sort of guy who would succeed.
So what went wrong?
I ended up taxi-driving, picking fruit, doing cleaning jobs, delivery jobs, was a driving instructor once and so on. Got fired from most of my jobs, bummed around for awhile, for a long while, actually, etc, etc. Got into trouble with the law, etc, etc.
Perfect life for an author, but not recommended otherwise...