Ask HN: What life lessons turned you to entrepreneurship?

Like many I have strong reasons for wanting the freedom and responsibility of earning my own income from a startup - but also small things that set me upon this path.

For me one of those notable ones was when I lived in Halls as a freshman, and a dorm mate got $3000 into CC debt on top of the loans everybody else had. The college gave him $2500 to clear his debt from a hardship fund. The very same year I had worked almost minimum wage to earn $3000 and probably turned down half the parties I was invited to, and had not been able to afford a laptop similar to my (Computer Science) classmates yet.

It was the best life lesson and I needed it. I never told a soul about this or the feeling, but it made me so hard working and so keen on earning my own source of revenue. Now I am older I have let go of that being through my own labour/work/ideas (e.g. OK with being a Landlord for some income), but I have always kept the need to be able to earn your own income, and gather the skills for it. I believe that other dorm mate learned a lesson that instead hurt them in the long run - whenever it came that nobody was around to bail them out.

Do you have a similar small story/moment?