Summary

A young entrepreneur reflects on their journey to becoming a billionaire at 29, sharing five unconventional secrets to success.

Abstract

The narrative follows the life of a young billionaire who rose from a middle-class background in Greece to immense wealth in America. The journey began amidst the hardships of war, leading to the family's relocation to the USA. The protagonist's rise to wealth was influenced by associations with prominent figures like the Gates family and other tech moguls. The article outlines five controversial secrets to success, including starting young, being aggressive in acquiring capital, exaggerating success stories, over-promising and under-delivering, and leveraging coding skills for hacking. The author emphasizes these tactics as unique to their experience and cautions readers about the satirical nature of the advice.

Opinions

The author believes in the power of starting young and the compound effect of early hustling.
They suggest that acquiring seed capital by any means necessary is a key factor in achieving success.
Exaggerating one's success and marketing it heavily is seen as a effective strategy for personal branding.
Over-promising and under-delivering, followed by a swift exit, is presented as a common tactic among young billionaires.
The author implies that exceptional coding skills can lead to significant financial gains if used for hacking, albeit with significant risks.
The article concludes with a humorous disclaimer, distancing itself from the satirical advice given and encouraging readers to use common sense.

With olives and more

Move Away Jeff, I Am The Next Youngest Billionaire

5 secrets from my 25-year journey

Image used under license from Shutterstock by Javier Brosch

I grew up in a middle-class family in Greece. My father was a history professor while my mother styled hair for women at home.

I have 6 other siblings. Life was relatively okay until the war hit the country. Overnight, my father lost his job and no women wanted their hair fixed.

When the war ended, I watched my parents worry about money daily. My father took on any job he can find — carrying coal, cleaning motels, and delivering goods. My mother worked as a nanny when needed.

By the time I turned 15, my father decided to relocate the entire family to the land of Freedom — America, to fulfill the American Dream where people like us can have anything as long as we worked hard.

When I first arrived in the USA, I barely knew English. I waited on tables and learned English on the go. My first taste in earning my first $100 felt great. I was determined to make it, no matter what.

My dad became friends with a guy named William Gates who was dating a woman named Miss French. My mum soon became great friends with Miss French-turned-Mrs. Gates-turned-Ms. French.

Quickly, every other evening the two families hung out together. I also became great friends with their children, Jennifer, Rory, and Phoebe.

They say you are the average of the 5 people, I guessed that holds true. Because the 5 closest people surrounding me at that time were MarkZ., JeffB., JackD., KevinS., SteveJ. Occasionally, Steve C., Chad H., and Jawed K. hung out with us too.

One day, MarkZ had an idea to start an online business. He called it Limama. I had no clue what it was except that it was about selling anything and everything under the sun. But when MarkZ asked me to help him, I said yes immediately. I figured I had nothing to lose. I was so broke then.

It turned out to be the best decision of my life.

For the next 5 years, MarkZ took care of the backend while I handled the sales and marketing. Every day and night, all we did were eat, sleep, and work on the business. I had no sex or social life. All I ever did was appear at almost every networking event, conference, and breakfast meeting, talking about Limama.

Now at 29, my net worth has shot up to US$990 million. I am 10 million dollars closer to hitting my first billion on my 30th birthday in 2 weeks. I feel good about hitting the numbers.

After garnering all these successes, I figured it’s time I share some of my secrets to how I became a billionaire at 29. By the way, these are my secrets and I don’t think they will work for you. I am one of those rare unicorn cases. Good luck if you want to beat my record.

Secret 1: You need to start really young.

Heard of the magic of compound effect? If you put a penny in a jar and doubled it every day for the next 30 days, you would have $5,368,709.12.

Start hustling the moment you can. Never mind if you are wearing diapers and biting on a pacifier. The earlier you start, the faster you get to the billion-dollar mark. It helps if your parents give you a head start too. Genetics plays a part.

Secret 2: Borrow, beg, steal

I don’t care how you are going to get your seed capital. If you really want to hit your lifestyle goal, you have to do whatever it takes. Trust me, I have seen all of them do that in my years of networking. In the worst-case scenario, should you get into lawsuits, or change your identity quickly like Jason Bourne.

Secret 3: Always blow your success story out of proportion

This is, by far, the second most common tactic employed. As soon you get your one mini success moment, create an exaggerated story out of it. Collect screenshots but edit them. Leave the bad stuff and highlight the good stuff only.

Then market the hell out of them. Run ads on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok and get them to buy your online programs that teach them how to be like you.

Remember, focus on the one-time achievement you have. Never mind if you cannot repeat the success. People are sheep. And oh, skip the stories where you and your students fail.

Secret 4: Always over-promise and under-deliver

This is the most common strategy used to date. Many young billionaires employed them. If you think you need to over-deliver and under-promise, I am sorry, you are really wasting your time and energy. Don’t take the less trodden path, go where others have gone before.

Whatever product or service you have in mind, always over-promise and under-deliver. But first, collect the money upfront. Always. Once you hit the peak of your sales, shut everything down. And very important, change your identity quickly. Think Jason Bourne again. Repeat the process.

Secret 5: Learn to code then hack everything.

If you have the brains and talents for coding, get really good at coding with the goal of hacking high-level wealthy organizations. You must be really good at this, else, Liam Neeson will look for you, find you and possibly, kill you. So consider this carefully.

Disclaimer: This is entirely fictional and written for humor sake. Any information is not fact-checked. Please exercise common sense here.

Hello there, Thanks for reading. I value your time gratefully. I don’t claim to know everything, but I will always strive to share every single bit of truth with thought and humility. Sometimes, humor too.

If you like to read more of my thoughts and have bite-sized actions towards positive living, hop over to The 3Min Club — a movement, mindfulness, and a mantra to practice in a total of 3 minutes. Your support is deeply appreciated.