When I Spent All My Money on an Apartment, a Leaky Pipe Taught Me an Essential Business Lesson When something is truly your problem, you figure out how to fix it.

I spent all my money buying my first flat — which meant I had no money to fix my first homeowner's problem. This was 2007, and I was a broke 20-something who'd pushed himself to the limit. I was sleeping on an air mattress because I couldn't afford furniture. Boxes were everywhere. Then I noticed a leaky pipe under the bath, which created a soggy puddle. I couldn't afford a plumber but didn't want to introduce myself to the neighbors by crashing through their wet ceiling.

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What to do? I took the bus to a nearby store and talked with the nice chap behind the counter. He explained how to fix it, let me try it out on some junk they had lying around the place, and sold me a pipe cutter and a bit of pipework. I went back home, pushed my head under the bath, and — admittedly, with a little swearing — got the job done.