I did this for a friend once too, for a year and a half. My friend had been running backpackers, and lost the business (and their place to stay) fast and unexpectedly when the building it was in was sold to a hostile landlord. It paid off. He's back on his feet.

I see people like investments; in cases like this, I didn't want to profit in the classic sense, but I did want to see my friend succeed, and I knew my friend had it in him. All I needed to do was provide a roof over his head for a bit.

I'm sorry to hear you had a negative experience here. There are success stories out there though. In the end, its about taking the right risks for the right people.

I'm sorry :(. I guess that's why it's hard, because it doesn't always turn out right. This person probably did thousands of drives in their life and only ONE of them led them to that feeling.