I’ve dug myself into a hole and I’m wondering what advice people could give me on how to get out of it.

As a kid I dreamed of being a star entrepreneur, after reading the countless stories out there. As I grew up I held that dream tightly, deciding to first go to engineering school (a tiny school), where I got my bachelors and masters degrees.

I was hired right out as a product manager at a software company and I did that for four years, hoping to learn how products get made and sold.

After a few years I wanted to learn more about business, and was encouraged by those around me to go to business school for an MBA.

I did that, without thinking hard enough about the debt that I would be taking on or for that matter the debt I had already. I went to an alright school (top 100), I had a low GMAT (entrance exam) score and I graduated with average grades (3.44/4.00 GPA). I did not do an internship, due to an illness.

I then got married, and took on my wife’s debt (she got a master’s degree in writing and makes barely anything as a professional writer). Added to that I came down with a psychiatric illness; this cut into the MBA career prep, and kept me from making strong interpersonal connections. While I’m fine now, I had to use credit cards to stay afloat and pay the bills for a while.

All told, I’m $400k in debt and living with the in-laws. If I made a $100,000 salary at a “high paying” job it would just get me by. Right now I have a year’s supply of cash (on a ramen budget), a place to stay and no kids. I have a lot of free time as I’m still unemployed.

Part of me wants to use this desperation right now to try and start a project, develop a product and try to make a fortune off it.

The more logical part of me wants to find a ridiculously high paying job (well over $100,000), although my experience so far has given me significant doubts anything like that exists for someone who has been out of the workforce for coming up on four years and was not a stellar MBA student.

So I’m asking for some advice for going forward (I’m well aware I didn’t make the right choices in the past and that I didn’t have the best luck).

PG says the best way to get rich is to do a startup. But he doesn’t say what the best way to get rich is for people with a heavy debt load (if there is a way).

I want to get rid of this debt ASAP and I’m wondering what out-of-the box ways people can think of (if there are any).

Thanks in advance for your comments.