Since I got my benefits analysis I learned that I’m going to have to explore a new route for my end goal. I’m going to gift all of my work to my friends and let them run the business. This may change in the future. Rest assured, this dream does not die here. I am very thankful to you folks for all the signal boosts and interest in my games and well-being. If you want, you can follow my personal blog, it’s http://the-iron-god.tumblr.com/. This blog, for now, is finished.
I’m going to summarize my experience with the DVR because there were numerous meetings that will be of absolute no use to anyone. and I want to provide helpful information. Even summarized, this post will be long.
TL;DR: The DVR didn’t work for me.
As far as my particular plan goes, the DVR isn’t a fit. You can’t simply seek business information from them. The service is excellent if you seek employment under another, they will help any disabled person find an enjoyable and stable method of gaining a little more money. What they do is they assess your abilities and interests, then help you define a plan to get you into a career doing an interest within your ability, then help you build a team of people to help you execute that plan. I would encourage anyone interested in that to apply.
One of the incredibly helpful things that they do is pay another organization to give you a benefits analysis. This completely answers where your money comes from and exactly what will happen if you go down various avenues to work. It shows your options and I was really surprised with how open and lenient some of those options are. For example, there’s a 9 month grace period for testing your career where you can make as much as you want/can and your benefits remain unchanged. Sweet, right? So if you go after employment, get a benefits analysis. It’s at interesting, at the very least.
*blog reader voice* “But, Robert, why didn’t that work for you?”
The DVR has specific, rigid guidelines that get even more specific and rigid if you seek to start your own business. For example, I went in there with my business model and showed them the stages/steps the business would take to get where I wanna go, steps A, B, C, and D wearing different “hats” at different times... but it doesn’t work that way according to them. You have to pick a career, A, and make that happen. To them a business can only be one thing. So I was like, okay, I’ll pick one that covers all those stages. Yet, I was told that given my level of education and resources that this was nigh impossible simply because I couldn’t do it all RIGHT NOW. But perhaps I should be tested to see where my interests, talents, and education levels are. So I did 3 tests over 2 meetings spaced out over 2 long and idle months... like 6-7 hours of solid interviewing and testing. I took the Career Occupational Preference System (COPS) test which is of no real significance to this conversation (because it just says what you wanna be and we already friggin’ know what I wanna do), the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE) Survey Level D (Difficult), and the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB). Afterwards, they completely changed their tune and were like, “Wow. You could probably do this. However, you absolutely need to go to school for at least 4 years and get credentials.” So, they wanted me to spend 4+ years putting myself in debt to learn a thing I’m already learning for free and not to proceed with earning money now from stuff I’ve already designed, just to get credentials that will impress who exactly? Investors? I showed them I wouldn’t need traditional investors! If I’m the boss, what do I need credentials for? Over and over again they just attempted to force me into this rigid system of proven methods. I don’t want do some something proven and small, I want to do something new and colossal. Their methods make sense in Worker Drone Land or what broken spirits call The Real World but if you talk to WILDLY successful entrepreneurs and other people doing what they absolutely love, they will tell you to run from that trap at light speed. So I closed my DVR case.
