I don’t know where to go from here …

It sucks. When you do startups, or anything meaningful really, you will fall down time and time again. But you have get up again every time.

A setbacks ins't the end of the world, although it can certainly feel that way. You're young and you have no financial obligations yet. You don't know yet what kind of life you want to live 20 or 40 years down the road, because nobody does. So don't focus on something very narrow and instead try to gain a broad range of experiences. Grow as a person. Get a deep education about the things you care about most. This in turn will set you up for success down the road.

Go back to school and get involved with startups when the inspiration comes back. When the startup takes off you can always drop out again. School (and university) is a good place to meet smart people who have a lot of leisure time. Work on projects together, and see if something takes off.

Maybe this essay can give you some perspective: http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html

Why not form a group at school and form relationships with fellow entrepreneur 's. Instead of worrying about things use that hatred as focus and drive.

You have your whole life ahead of you, really, you do. No entrepreneur gives up their dream, evolve and inivate your ideas and recruits like minded people.

I feel for you, but please listen carefully to what I have to say. I don't know a single successful entrepreneur that had a success right out of the gate. There is usually a trail of wreckage on the way to success. I have personally failed my way to success, having started 4 failed companies before slowly building my first successful business.

The stories that you hear of instant millionaires rarely tell the whole story. Most 'overnight' successes were years in the making. Especially if you consider string of failures that likely led to this ultimate success.

Each 'failure' is an opportunity to learn and grow and build your skills. What did you learn from your business? You learned to take your time to really learn. And, you had the balls to shut down your business instead of breaking the law. You also had the balls (and the integrity!) to return money to your customers. A jackhammer hasn't been taken to your foundation. Instead, you've added some rebar and concrete. You've reinforced it for your next endeavour.

Now, let's talk about your depression and thoughts of suicide. I want you to call this number: 1-800-273-TALK (8255). There, you'll find real help in understanding and navigating the thoughts that you've been having.

Please do the world a favor and bring share genius. Don't deny us the product or service that could change the world or start a revolution. We need you.

When you are ready for a business mentor, reach out.

Wishing you all the best,

Red

You are not your startup. You are a businessperson, and at any moment in time you are simply applying your skills as a businessperson to a particular project or venture. Just like an actor has a set of skills and at any moment in time he/she is applying those skills to a particular movie. If the movie does poorly, that doesn't mean the actor can't act. Maybe that particular movie didn't play to his/her acting strengths. Maybe that particular movie wasn't funded sufficiently to gain the distribution it needed to succeed at the box office. If you think of yourself as a businessperson and not as your venture, then by your own admission you are a wiser and more skillful businessperson for having worked at your venture, no matter its outcome. Take that wisdom into your next venture. By the way, there are some investors who won't back an entrepreneur unless he/she has failed at a venture, because those investors know you've been tested in ways others have not. Keep your head high; you have reasons to be proud.

Here's the thing: we have all failed in the past, and that's exactly what it is, the past. And it's just something that happened. It doesn't make up the total of who you are--not even close. Every day is a new opportunity to live life differently than you did yesterday. Think of all the people who have failed. Not one of us can say we haven't. It doesn't matter that you failed. What matters is how you move forward. Many great people have been exactly where you are. You probably have many more excellent ideas. Leave the past behind, my friend. You will feel a huge relief.

Getting stuck may seem like the end, but its not, you can still move forward, taking what you've learned and applying it to future awesome things; it will build you to be better and stronger next time around. There are always, always opportunities which may not be clear at first. Maybe you can look into some local start-up accelerators or business incubators, even just to meet other entrepreneurs, maybe join a start-up team or just get some mentor-ship to toss around ideas and see which would be the most viable to start another business What is important is that you learned from the experience, as a true entrepreneur does. Maybe you can rework you business model to meet legal obligations, or even find a solution to a new idea. You obviously have what it takes to go out and start your own business, to identify a need and provide a solution, and to profit in doing so, that sounds pretty entrepreneurial to me. Instead of dwelling on the negative focus on the positive, it is the key to success. Learn what you can, apply it to new venture and find that passion and belief in yourself which drove you to start your first company, with new verve. I'm sure you are full of ideas for new businesses, find which is the most viable and make it happen, I believe in you and I know you have the ability to build a great company.

google>>> " entrepreneurs don't give up "

As an entrepreneur, you're going to have to learn how to frame your life situations as opportunities rather than exploitations.

Your high school experience is one of your first opportunities to develop the skills that you'll need to succeed as an entrepreneur. Why waste that golden opportunity?

An entrepreneur requires skill to make the most of a situation that each is presented with. A skill is something that can be developed over time, becoming a strength, or neglected and wither over time, becoming a weakness.

I can empathize with what you're going through, emotionally. It's hard for anyone to dedicate him/herself to something that hasn't been chosen but is instead required of him/her. The thing is, you have to accept that you're going to face situations in your life that YOU CAN'T CONTROL, where you've got no choice but to either wallow in misery through it or make the most of that situation. High school is something that many people hate to experience. However, society requires a minimal level of education , hoping that such education will produce people more capable of taking on the challenges they will face in society. We can respect that idea although we know the reality produces something much less to be desired. It's better than the alternative, though, and so society sticks with the program.

I'd like to recommend that you read the book by Victor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning". It explains in depth how a holocaust survivor realized what can and can't be controlled. It's a story of personal empowerment.

http://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/080701429X

A lot of the "entrepreneurs don't give up" is survivor bias talking: the entrepreneurs who fail and fail and never succeed - you don't hear from them.

Learn from what mistakes others have made as well as the ones you did. Being an entrepreneur is ridiculously difficult and risky - you have to have a psychological condition to want to do it, but the rewards both psychological and financial can be great.

This isn't guaranteed though, so work smart and don't believe the hype - believe in your own ability to learn and willingness to suffer.

Go back to school. Enjoy the fun while you can, you will have the rest of your life to work. Disover yourself first, the rest will follow.

The way I see it, you learned to carefully consider every single aspect of launching a company, the hard way (legal in this case). - not the end of the world.

The upside (which is way more important) is that you had a good idea that worked so there will be a next time.

For now, I would take a break from going against the current, stop thinking about it, clear your head and put things into perspective - whether that implies going back to school or not (which could have advantages even if you're not learning anything), is up to you.

All the best.

Would love to hear from the OP on this...

Talk to a lawyer. Pivot and change in a different direction so that there is no conflict.

You are so early that the product could easily change and you still have the customers who PAID you!. They believed in you.

Dont give up. There will be 100 more rules that will say you cant do it. Bend around them and keep moving

I think you are very lucky. Think about this... your first start up was very successful, you keep creating new companies and grow much bigger, get married, have children, have big houses, lot of employees working for you. Now you face the similar law suit to close down you company. How would that feel? Compare that feeling to what you have now? It is nothing right? Keep going dude/dudette, you are one of the luckiest person to learn a valuable lesson so early in life.