Researching 30 Profiles under 30 that became Millionaires in the 21st century led me to re-discover 3 Lessons.

As we face the Covid-19 global health pandemic, I can’t help but reflect on some of the other crises the world has faced. Historically, each of these events has had a profound effect and reshaped the world in lasting ways, from how people interact, communicate and travel to the larger effects of a shuttered global economy, disrupted supply chains and the need for more advanced technologies.

On November 1, 1755, Lisbon, Portugal was hit by an earthquake, known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, killing 60.000 people. In combination with subsequent fires and a tsunami, this earthquake almost completely destroyed Lisbon and its surrounding areas. This natural disaster had wide-ranging effects on the lives of the population. It struck on an important religious holiday, destroying almost every church in the city and causing anxiety and confusion throughout the country. The people in the region had no idea what to expect.

The French philosopher Voltaire, aged 60 at the time, shared his perspective about the earthquake in his Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne. While many attributed the earthquake to God's wrath visited upon sinful people, Voltaire sought another answer. He became subject of mockery, and misunderstood, his poem manifested itself into the future.

Just as Voltaire challenged the mindset and thinking of his generation, the dot-com boom, with Millennials on frontlines, disrupted hundreds of industries, challenging their status quo and shifting paradigms.

The dot-com revolution opened eyes and proved that everyone with a skillset, great idea and team could take an idea and turn into reality.

For Millennials, the dot-com era affected these young adults in tangible ways, forcing them to struggle through a weak job market that has taken years to recover. But, it also shifted attitudes, pondering whether their futures would be as bright as their parents or grandparents.

Despite restraints of unemployment, underemployment and student loan debt, the Millennial generation has taken optimistic about its prospects for success and has taken advantage of boundless opportunities.

They have risen as accelerators with mentors. Some of the most notable ones include Y Combinator, 500 Startups, foundations such as Peter Thiel, and VC funds such as Sequoia Capital. They paved the way for groundbreakers and game-changers to access massive capital as long as they transformed industries. A complete list of accelerators and related resources can be found here.

Being born in the Soviet Union I never knew, heard or even met anyone from the startup world, who was a self-made entrepreneur, or who was even a liberal thinker until my 15th birthday.

My uncle, who immigrated to the United States after USSR`s collapse in 1992, introduced me to Windows 95s on my 14th birthday. While that was a game-changer, the biggest game-changer was the book I read by Robert Kiyosaki titled Rich Dad and Poor Dad (Listen here for free).

All of that reflected on my surroundings along with the mindset of old and conservative education, society, and decaying system and its management from top to down. It shaped me, and above all, it propelled me into an entrepreneurship lifestyle that I never regretted.

Exactly the same year, ironically, PayPal was shaping the products that we are aware of, LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft, Youtube was acquired by Google and PayPal struck a deal with eBay. Today those people that made PayPal are known as PayPal Mafia.

I admire the Millennials and Generation Z, because they are both profoundly aggressive, adaptive, digital/tech-friendly, and entrepreneurial.

Some could not even imagine being born a couple of decades ago. They would not have disrupted industries, but ways of thinking. Examples of the past include Giordano Bruno, The 15th-century Italian philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist who was burned at the stake for a stubborn adherence to his then unorthodox beliefs, including the ideas that the universe is infinite and that other solar systems exist. Galileo Galilei challenged the church for his hypothesis, and yet discovered the four most massive moons of Jupiter. Coco Chanel was criticized for reimagining women`s fashion. Oscar Wilde was challenged for not being straight, and yet became recognized as one of Ireland’s profound writers. The list goes on and on.

My key motivation to compose this article came out of the blue when I was watching the news about 17-year-old Avi Schiffmann who built a website that tracks the number of Coronavirus cases. With 40 million visitors, he rejected $8 million because he did not develop it for the money but because he could and had a vested interest.

While watching with my jaw open, I remembered reading an article about 22-year-old Alexander Wang, the Founder and CEO who left MIT to pursue Scale AI (young, energetic team members are just the ones that challenge the status quo) after his freshman year of college. Today, the company has raised over $120 million in venture funding and is valued at over $1 billion. His story, achievements and discipline described in the following video are simply admirable.

I wonder what 22-year-old Alexander Wang and 17-year-old Avi Schiffman have in common?

What if Gallileo could have shown the world his discoveries? What if Oscar Wilde wrote more books? What if Giordano Bruno could have become an Innovation Minister? What if Archimedes could have lived longer to show the brilliance of his thinking? What if Socrates could have written his books to reshape the very core of our social architecture? What if the World’s Most Sought After Philosopher Epictetus was born as a free man, not a slave, and enlightened nations with his wisdom? What if?

Reflecting on my journey, compared to the discoveries I have mentioned in this article, I would like to celebrate, publicly recognize, and express my admiration for these great minds. I want to set them as role models and great change-makers that have cracked the code to developing an idea, solving a problem, and keeping team and scale.

While it is so easy to say their accomplishments, based on my experience as an entrepreneur, it is a hell of a job to expand on ideas and juggle many balls to keep it moving forward as you grow.

Here are 30 profiles that I follow to keep myself informed and inspired. They have diverse ethnic belongings, backgrounds, experiences, and stories, yet all seem to share some common qualities. Let's explore the list:

Warning for Readers— This one is a lengthy article, and yet rewarding, buckle up and let`s go...

1.   A 8-Year-Old Boy Who Made $11 Million Reviewing Toys On YouTube

I would like to start my list with Ryan Guan who simply plays with toys and makes money. The world's top-earning YouTube star is an 8-year-old boy who made $22 million in a single year reviewing toys. ToysReview generated $22 million in revenue in a single year from his YouTube fame, according to Forbes in its most recent report on YouTuber earnings. Ryan ToysReview, with 24 million followers today, was created in March of 2015. Initially, it didn’t get many views. After four months, the children’s YouTube channel published this video, and views started doubling every month. Playing with toys turned Ryan into a sensation. This video says it all. See the link here.

2. Kylie Jenner

Kylie Jenner is self-made and the youngest billionaire whom i wrote about in this article, You Don't Have To Be An Influencer To Influence: 10 Ideas from LinkedIn Profiles That Taught Me How To Engage, Learn, and Network. I explored the story of the youngest self-made member of the Kardashians family that had a team of professionals that orchestrated the empire that she built along with her family.

An American media personality, she has starred in the E! reality television series Keeping Up with the Kardashians since 2007 and is the founder and owner of cosmetic company Kylie Cosmetic.

3.  The Collision Brothers

John (age 29) and Patrick Collison (age 31) are stellar prodigies and self-educated programmers who shaped the concept behind Stripe and a fantastic team that challenged major payment systems as the must-go-to platform.

From humble beginnings, this Irish duo announced a strategic partnership and investment from Visa in 2015 that would help Visa provide better online and mobile experiences, while Stripe would benefit from Visa's technical tools like tokenization used to anonymize user transactions and global reach.

The report by CB Insights, “How the $35B Payments Company Plans To Supercharge Online Retail” discusses an entire payment infrastructure and evolution of payment to help developers instead of consumers. It has become a real game-changer solution.Watch their story here.

4. Ankiti Bose

Ankiti Bose, a world-class entrepreneur who is disrupting the textile and apparel industry, is the co-founder and CEO of Zilingo. The 28-year-old entrepreneur left a promising job in 2015 as an investment analyst at Sequoia Capital to launch her own company, reshaping the industry, building a team and making things happen, mind-blowing commercial that got my attention was the beginning of my interest to explore the brand.

Bose was only 23 when she founded Zilingo, an e-commerce platform that offers B2B functionality. She moved to Singapore in 2016, where she developed the Zilingo software and supply chain capabilities. In 2019, Zilingo raised $226 million in Series D fundraising, resulting in a $970 million market value. Learn more about her story here.

5.Vitalik Buterin

No one can imagine the Blockchain industry without Satoshi Nakomoto (however, I am convinced that my partner Stephane Laurent has cracked the code about the mystery and someday will release his discoveries!). Vitalik Buterin aged 26, built the Etherium Blockchain foundation, allowing startups to benefit from his platform and applying decentralization like no one before him.

His ideas and the Etherium project challenge all centralized entities and gives freedom back to people. Although a controversial move to make, requiring time to swallow, having worked and explored Blockchain, it is simply hard to believe how this young Russian-Canadian programmer could have come up with an idea like this. His story can be watched here.

6. Julián Ríos Cantú

The 20-year-old Julián Ríos from Mexico has a very personal story. His mother's painful two-time battle with breast cancer motivated and inspired him to resolve to save women's lives through early breast cancer detection. He not only became the Theil Fellowship sponsorship recipient later building his brand Eva Bra, but also Y Combinator alumni and the next-generation change maker to watch out for.

7. Alyson Friedensohn

In a rapidly developing, hectic and uncertain world, mental health is paramount. 

Entrepreneur Alyson Friedensohn helps employees from reaching their breaking point. Her digital mental health start-up, Modern Health, offers psychological assessments, remote therapy sessions, career coaching and guided meditation. Clients include Pixar, Gusto and Nextdoor. In 2018, with cofounder Erica Johnson, she joined accelerator Y Combinator, raising $11 million. Watch this video to learn more.

8. Henry Elkus

Helena is an institution that develops projects that take on critical societal problems such as climate change, global security, economic inequality and the development of advanced technologies. At the helm of Helena, bringing together top-notch experts across scores of industries is Commander in Chief Henry Elkus.

Henry left Yale University after his sophomore year to operate Helena. At 18, he became the youngest panelist on the Wall Street Journal’s online “experts” panel on small business. Helena`s social Impact, team, supporters and audacity to challenge existing and emerging problems is great example of social power and what it could do.

9. Ritesh Agarwal 

One of the prominent Thiel foundation recipients is Ritesh Agarwal, who took on one of the most competitive industries, the hotel industry, founding OYO Rooms. The fastest growing network of Branded hotels offline and online, I learned about Ritesh while reading an article this article: 25-Year-Old Founder Spends $2 Billion to Triple Stake in Oyo on Bloomberg. Ever since, I have been following this Indian entrepreneur and CEO as well as OYO Room’s developments.

Founding the company before he was age 20, Oyo Rooms is a successful network of 2,200 hotels operating in 154 cities across India with monthly revenues of $3.5 million and more than 20,000+ employees. Check out his story.

10. Do Kwon 

To build the world’s largest blockchain payment network is a big bet, and 29-year-old Do Kwon and his team have already attracted 40 million users to work with the company at launch in January 2018. With the aim of building a blockchain-based payment system, Terra, the company he founded, has raised $32 million from crypto-giants such as Binance, Arrington XRP and Polychain Capital, and others.

A young entrepreneur, Do Kwon was the founder and former CEO of Any?, a wireless mesh network startup, building one of the most sophisticated decentralized applications in real world use.

11. Maxine Ryan

Giving an opportunity to benefit from financial tools for the unbanked population was a simple mission for Maxine. She, along with her team, were the first in the world to send cash in, cash out Bitcoin transfers from Hong Kong to the Philippines, and since expanded to over seven markets in Asia and Africa with over half a million in cashpoint networks with its technical infrastructure and products.

Maxine Ryan, a 26-year-old college dropout, Co-founded Bitspark in 2014. This blockchain-based remittance platform operating out of Hong Kong capitalized on emerging technology. It also operates an online platform for cryptocurrency and Bitcoin trading, raising $4.5 million through the sale of its token currency Zephyr.

12.Daniel Liang

Daniel is the 25-year-old cofounder and the CEO of Get, followed his entrepreneurial spirit and developed a platform for a purchase-sharing social networking service with the capability of digital payment.

In October 2018, Get (Australia's most popular app for student societies to collect money from a group) raised $2.5 million in a funding round led by Vertex Ventures and Click Ventures. Since its inception, Get has sold over $6 million worth of tickets, memberships and merchandise. It owns a major market share across Australian universities.

13. Melvin Hade

Despite his young age of 24, Melvin Hade is one of the higher-ups at Global Founders Capital, a venture capital fund with $1 billion, investing globally across all stages from seed to growth capital and across segments from direct-to-consumer. A billion-dollar fund says it all. Looking at their portfolio reflects their professionalism and in-depth understanding of business.

14.Terence Ting

Terence is one of the pioneers in Esports who raised $1.5 million for his startup Team Flash. Since the inception of the project, members hustled and proudly won one of the highest prize money totals of more than $800,000 for major tournaments in this region. He surpassed 2 million fans on social media across all team- and player-owned channels, generating more than 100 million views on all owned and earned media content in 2019.

This video shares more about CEO/Founder Terence Ting and his accomplishments with Team Flash and competitive gaming.

15. Christel Quek

Christel Quek, the 29-year-old co-founder and COO of BOLT, and her team built the recognized ROI-driven media ecosystem. BOLT allows users to convert their time spent within the ecosystem of apps (starting with interactive sports content) into cash or goods. This is recorded on blockchain and facilitated with the BOLT Token. The startup, focused on creative content for emerging markets, has raised $12 million from Neo Capital Global and Ether Capital.

It has grown through partnerships with telecommunications companies in Africa and Indonesia and with brands like the Discovery Channel, Digi, and many others

16. Bridget Loudon

Bridget Loudon is the Founder and CEO of Expert360, Australia’s leading online marketplace for the elite freelance consulting talent. She and her team led the company to become a global Talent-as-a-Service (TaaS) platform, having raised over $8 million in capital and obtaining more than 12,000 consultants using the platform across 97 countries. Over 2,500 companies, including Qantas, Uber, Virgin and Amex have posted more than $60 million in projects over that time.

In addition to running successful businesses and start-ups, Bridget is a recognized thought leader in the future of talent and professional services and has won numerous accolades and awards. This video shares her journey to success.

17. Evan Wong

26 Years Old Evan Wong, James Han and Paul Wenck cofounded the Australian startup Checkbox in 2016. The company digitalizes complex regulations into automated cloud software without developer coding. Checkbox closed its first funding round in July 2018 with $1.77 million from angel investors. In 2017, it won the annual pitching competition at the StartCon conference in Sydney, securing $120,000 in credits from tech giant IBM to grow the business.

18. Zac Liew

28 Years Old Zac Liew is cofounder and CEO of Curlec. The fintech startup helps SMEs overlooked by traditional banks collect recurring payments with its automated platform, replacing manual methods like cash, checks or credit cards. Since its launch in 2017, Curlec has processed $50 million in transactions. More than 300 businesses currently use its platform, including SMEs, large companies and other fintech companies like Funding Societies and StashAway. The startup is backed by VC firms, 500 Startups and Captii Ventures, and was built by exceptional team players.

19. Manuri Gunawarden

When Manuri Gunawardena was a medical student she witnessed patients who had exhausted all traditional medical options, yet struggled to find and access potentially life-saving clinical trials. As a co-founder and CEO of HealthMatch at the age of 27, she aimed to connect sick patients with clinical trials of potential cutting-edge treatments. HealthWatch team members raised $1.3 million in capital from Australian and U.S. industry leaders and won the inaugural Australian version of TechCrunch Startup Battlefield.

This article conveys her passion to provide patients access to clinical trials.

20. Woong Hee (John) Lee

Woong Hee (John) Lee is CEO of One Life One Technology, a hospitality startup that has expanded from a home cleaning service in South Korea to hotel management in Japan, working with high-profile partners like Rakuten. A former Morgan Stanley investment banker, 31-year-old John Lee from Seoul, South Korea believed that social benefit and business success are two sides of the same coin.

As he aimed to tackle systemic underemployment such as among the middle aged in South Korea and foreigners in Japan, his company has raised over $11 million so far.

21. Shishir Modi

When investors like Ratan Tata, Ronnie Screwvala’s Unilazer Ventures, EMVC, Haresh Chawla and Japan’s Recruit Partners, invest into a startup, it grabs your attention. Entrepreneur Shishir Modi, age 30, along with Keshav Prawasi, age 29, and Nitin Babel, age 29, developed the startup Niki.

Niki is on a mission to turn India’s 500 million new Internet users into transacting consumers. Niki’s proprietary technology enhances the offline experience by leveraging machine learning and Natural Language Processing. This one-stop shopping solution landed Shishir Modi and his cofounders a lifetime opportunity to transform the industry.

22. Ilayda Buyukdogan

Ilayda Buyukdogan is one of the rising stars and recipient of a scholarship from Thiel foundation. She and her team members challenged themselves and others around her to cofound the startup Compocket, which blends the worlds of software and compact hardware. Compocket reimagines the test and measurement devices.

23. Jad Sayegh

In my previous article, I included Sarwa as one of my favorite FinTech startup picks. Sarwa is making investments more accessible and responsible through their SRI portfolios and low entry thresholds. The company’s higher-ups are not just transforming the industry and helping others to make their finance work for them, but also becoming self-made millionaires. 

Founded by Lebanese entrepreneurs Mark Chahwan, Jad Sayegh and Nadine Mezher great teamwork allowed them to get $8.4 million in funding in a Series A round, bringing its total funding to over $10 million since its inception in December 2017.

24. Gustav Lundberg Toresson

Gustav Lundberg Toresson, from Stockholm, Sweden, cofounded an award-winning startup with a mission focused on 'helpful ads' to reduce the need for ad blockers when he was 18 years old. Today, Gustag Lundberg Toresson, age 30, is the commander in chief of Memmo. Started with his team in 2019, he raised $2 million in Seed Round, for his startup that allows fans to connect with celebrities on a personal level. It’s a great gig to watch, read this to learn more.

25. Nicolo Petrone

Nicolo Petrone gave up his stable career to start 1000Faramcie, later expanding his team which is the first Italian Pharmacy Marketplace. Backed by leading Italian VCs, his corporate background and deep understanding of Fintech propelled his vision in disrupting industry.

At age 26, Nicolo Petrone is today a sought-after guest speaker and lecturer across the Europe and Globe sharing the story of 1000 Farmacie.

26. Mads Andreas Olesen

Mads Andreas Olesen’s experience is indeed inspiring with great achievements, especially successful exits. One could easily say he is a self-made 29-year-old serial entrepreneur from Copenhagen, Denmark who has a lot to pursue and makes things happen.

MXNEY and the team behind it is his new gig. It is not just another platform in the market, but one that provides capital for the purchase of inventory and carries the full risk of the inventory if it is not sold

27. Mariano Kostelec

Mariano Kostelec and his team are the supporters of education. This support is manifested in being the co-founder and CEO of StudentFinance, a project that is designed to help students benefit from education through income Share agreements. This project helps and gives hope to millions across Europe, and hopefully the world, in the future. This one is for those despite your age you can always re-educate yourself and change as the market starts to require completely new skills to remain competitive.

28. Karen Maimon

Very few female professionals who I know understand how to deal with money. Karen Maimon`s expertise, experience, story and knowledge of investment makes her an exception.

Tel Aviv Capital Fund’s Keren Maimon, age 26, stands out for her work along with her team raising more than $120 million for Israeli startups. Brilliance Ventures, which she manages today, handles scores of portfolios that are worthy to look at.

29 and 30 Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi

Last two young entrepreneurial heroes on my list are truly special, I learned about them while reading Bloomberg last year. This subject line caught my attention right away: How Two College Dropouts Made $860 Million Fortune by Age 23.

They are Henrique Dubugras, age 24, and Pedro Franceschi, age 23. They are the founders and top executives of Brex, Inc. a Fintech startup valued at $2.6 billion. Their list of investors need no introduction and can be seen here.

This list could go on endlessly. I just shared some young superstars achieving entrepreneurial success that I have followed for a while and that I have learned from.

They constantly awe me with new ideas. Even now, reflecting on all of them, three things stand out to me that seem to be common among all of these success stories.

Although perhaps debatable to sum up all of my takeaways into just three since there are many and their achievements influence each of us differently, I’m going to share those that are more noticeable to me:

1- Curiosity

Being inquisitive and asking questions, above all the right questions, could lead to real breakthroughs, discoveries and remarkable inventions. I would argue those profiled above have had some experience the industry that made them think, question, research and take bold action to realize or test their idea. One simply can't ignore the importance and power of curiosity in our personal and professional lives.

2- Courage

Anyone could give recommendations, tell you what to do, and read success stories, but not everyone can get out of their comfort zone, leave a stable job, and go against the tide, even if the facts and data show that you have a great opportunity. Trying can be a daunting task, and that is where courage and self-belief comes in. While curiosity nourishes the mind, courage nourishes the action. Nothing works unless one decides to take firm action to make the required change. Like Benjamin Franklin once said: Necessity is the mother of all inventions

3- Tenacity

I remember watching the movie Jerry Maguire with actor Tom Cruise, especially the well-known scenes with the key lines: “Show me the money,” and “Who told you winning is cheap.”

Ever since, these two statements have been my loyal motto across all walks of my life. You must be motivated and disciplined to achieve. Curiosity will help you to research and shape the idea, courage will help you to kick off the idea, and tenacity will get you there when everyone else leaves, gives up or gets disappointed.

I won't take your time to tell other success stories, but instead remind you that today there is the internet, digital tools, remote partners, employees and much more. In other words, the clock is ticking, the world is spinning and time is passing. As entrepreneurs with many ideas, it is almost unacceptable to think small and live normally in our age of unlimited opportunity!

Conclusion

The following insert from a recent Bloomberg article written by Andreas Kluth made me think, and I would like to share it with you as I conclude this article:

A pandemic lockdown might be a fruitful time for other introverts. Isaac Newton was at Cambridge University when, in 1665-66, the bubonic plague broke out. Like schools and universities today, Cambridge closed and sent its students home.

Newton was stuck on his family estate in rural Lincolnshire. Young Newton spent endless hours alone in nature, in pensive absorption.

Once he saw an apple fall from a tree and realized that it responded to the same force as the moon orbiting the earth, which led him to a theory of gravity.

He also observed light in its many colors and began thinking about optics. And he applied his logic to nature in a way that led him to pioneer calculus. Historians now call Newton’s quarantine his annus mirabilis, or miracle Year.

For introverts who are drained by the random noise of small talk, it's your time to shine. Take this time to think, read, tinker, or discuss something in depth. Good things can be found when going deep and reaching high.

Today, news about Covid-19 is upsetting us and all-encompassing. The number of victims is staggering and the concept of a balanced lifestyle is disrupted probably forever. But just like Voltaire, Newton and so many others saw an opportunity during the crises and natural disasters, they are among some of the great examples that celebrate human intelligence, a curious mindset, a courageous demeanor to challenge the status quo and a tenacious attitude to prove naysayers wrong.

As these young entrepreneurs have followed their ideas and dreams, we should all be inspired to do the same regardless of the current situation. Maybe even more so because of the current situation. I will end with one last quote, which is summarizing and thought-provoking.

According to Masayoshi Son, the Korean-Japanese billionaire technology entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, “Think big; think disruptive. Execute with full passion.”

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