Have you ever heard your mother say, ‘Work hard now, then you won’t have to struggle later’? When she says these profound things you think, ‘Instead I’ll work moderately hard now, but I’ll leave the real struggle to when I’m older and wiser’. That my friend is procrastination. We’re all guilty of postponing the most tedious or challenging tasks to some unknown future.
Well, there were some of us who actually followed this useful advice, and now we read about them in papers, in magazines and well blog posts like these. If you’re looking for inspiration, here are 10 successful people who started really early in life.
1. Ritesh Agarwal
Early Start: 18 years of age
Company: Oyo Rooms
Net Worth: US $55 Million
A dropout at 17, Ritesh always knew he would be an entrepreneur. He sold sim cards at the age of 13 and by 18 he was already building on his business idea. His biggest achievement came at 20, when he was selected for the 20 under 20 Thiel Fellowship, started by Paypal founder, Peter Thiel. Ritesh was one of the very few aspiring entrepreneurs who acquired a support grant of US $100,000 and access to some of the brightest minds in Silicon Valley. Today, he runs a successful business that’s become a household name, OYO Rooms.
2. Shravan Kumaran and Sanjay Kumaran
Early Start: 16 and 14 years of age, respectively.
Company: GoDimensions
Net Worth: Unknown
These brothers are considered the youngest Mobile Application developers in India and one of the youngest all over the world. They’ve developed 11 applications with 70,000 downloads and still counting. Whether it was tapping into the field of virtual reality or even something as necessary as an emergency app, they’ve done it all.
3. Farrhad Acidwala
Early Start: 16 years of age
Company: Rockstah Media
Net Worth: US $4 Million
Farrhad’s dream started off at 16, when he borrowed Rs.500 from his dad. He used that money to purchase a domain name, which over time became a web community devoted to aviation and aero-modeling. That’s when he got his big break, he sold the website for a lucrative and profitable deal. Today, Farrhad is the CEO of Rockstah Media. with a team of developers and marketers spread all over the world.
4. Arjun Rai
Early Start: 18 years of age
Company: Odyssey Ads
Net Worth: Unknown
At 7, Arjun sold knick knacks from around the house in garage sales, later he set up shop to sell leftover wildflower necklaces from weddings. Inspired by ‘The Oprah Show’ and ‘The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch’, he took to the entrepreneurial way of life. He is today the founder of Odyssey Ads, an online advertising company that meets the needs of 21st century marketers.
5. Mark Zuckerberg
Early Start: 12 years of age
Company: Facebook
Net Worth: US$59.4 billion
Mark Zuckerberg needs no introduction. When you think of Facebook, you think of Instagram, Whatsapp and every popular app imaginable. Now that is called being the best of both worlds. Not only did he create something as amazing as Facebook, but he also had the business mind to acquire apps that we use on an everyday basis! This brilliance started right from middle school, when he ventured into programming. He was the proud creator of Facebook by the time he turned 20 years old, today, at the age of 33, he’s worth US$59.4 billion.
6. Blake Ross
Early Start: 19 years of age
Company: Mozilla Firefox
Net Worth: US $150 Million
Blake Ross, also known as the co-creator of Mozilla Firefox, is not only a entrepreneur but also a famous author. Mozilla Firefox was launched in 2004, when Blake was only 19 and it reached 100 million downloads in less than a year. Around the same time he published Firefox For Dummies! In 2006, Ross established a new start up called Parakey, which he sold to Facebook in 2007.
7. Matt Mullenweg
Early Start: 19 years of age.
Company: WordPress
Net Worth: US $40 million
Mullenweg was studying at University of Houston, when he started work on WordPress. He was 19, when he dropped out of college to develop the site further. He started with company of 5 and today I’m typing this article on WordPress, all the way in India.
8. Peter Cashmore
Early Start: 20 years of age.
Company: Mashable.com
Net Worth: US $70 million
Peter Cashmore, a name you might remember from Forbes Magazine’s 30 under 30 or from the list of top 25 web celebrities. He’s the great mind who got us Mashable.com! With a reader base of 10 million and counting, Mashable has come a long way from a simple idea that Peter had at 20.
It’s never too early! Start now, #BahutTimeNahiHai
