Patrick struggles with money? What's your source for that? Last I recall he was writing about how he did consulting gigs making tens of thousands of dollars a week.
I don't recall the blog post, but when Patrick switched from consulting to appointment reminder only, he had a sudden cash crunch due to an (unexpected tax bill?) and suffered a major health crisis. That wasn't that long ago.
I think the consulting gigs were not constant. Those were the high points. He had a high income, just not so high as if you multiply $15,000 * 52.
I'm writing this as a fan of Patrick's. Just clarifying your answer based on my recollection of his writings. It's pretty plausible he didn't have a massive savings buffer.
Speaking as an entrepreneur, there's always conflict between saving money vs. investing more of it in businesses. I imagine a lot of value is locked up in appointment reminder. This last paragraph is entirely speculation and not based on anything I remember Patrick writing.
One of his stated reasons for selling BCC was to fund the development phase of Starfighter.
One possible interpretation of that statement is that he had inadequate savings and was struggling with money.
I think there are other equally valid interpretations that could be made, but if you read this post from a negative viewpoint, it's easy enough to reach the conclusion that if Patrick has decided to convert an asset into real money that must be a bad thing.
