The Rags-to-Riches Life of Jan Koum

If you are about to close a deal of US $ 19 Billion would you be worried about missing the flight which you paid with your frequent-flier miles? Me neither, with that amount of money getting transferred to my account I would charter a flight and go around the world but not Jan Koum. According to a message he sends to Facebook he pressured them to close the deal for the acquisition of his company (Whatsapp) faster so that he could be on his way to Barcelona.

The eventful childhood of Koum has so much to do with this money saving habits he carried into his adulthood. Born in Ukraine to a struggling household where running water was a luxury, he transformed himself to become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in America under 40 years of age. The society was really closed off under the communist rule and the anti-Semitic environment forced them to immigrate to the USA, where they lived on welfare and food stamps, struggling but managing.

Deeply fascinated by the interesting world of computer Koum taught himself different programming languages by buying books from a local bookstore and returning them afterwards. After several billion dollar deal his mother can’t be still mad at him for spending money on books. For a person who barely graduated from the State University, those evening book reading sessions were the actual education.

Through these blogs, I deliberately try to make a point that real success is not the amount of money that you have amassed but not forgetting the values that brought you that far in life. Jan Koum doesn’t prefer being called an entrepreneur or being in the news for the amount of money he has instead he prefers to keep building product and services that help humanity and make our communication process easier and more accessible.

We live in a world where everybody seek attention but there are few like Koum who shun the spotlight and keep doing their part to make this world a better place.

Casey Neistat Writes His Own Success Story

The drive to learn every single day fuels the life of this Filmmaker, YouTuber and Businessman – Casey Neitstat. Growing up he had his own beliefs that didn’t align well with that of the authority figures in his life, and he ran away from home at the age of 15 and became a dad at the age of 17. This was the pivotal struggling moment in his life. Living on state welfare and having a job as a dishwasher his girlfriend at that time left him. But he was able to channel the trouble he was going through in his life to a more creative outlet in the form of video making.


The excitement of the unknown that was waiting when he moved to New York City to pursue his new found passion took over the fear that clouded his mind. Casey had the courage to leave behind what could have been a conventional trajectory of having a usual career but instead, he went after something more terrifying and dangerous. He now sits own his successful Tech Company, movie, advertising, YouTube career.


“Liking what you have is not a good enough reason no to want something better”, Casey Neitstat. This thought process coincides so well with the professional career of most of the people. How much do you like being challenged at work? Or do you like being challenged at all! Many successful individuals have started their own ventures after their daily jobs failed to challenge their creativity and existing knowledge. The moment we stop being learning while doing anything is the time we should search, find and put ourselves in situations which will test our skills and teach us something new.

Who is Casey?

Kevin Plank's Journey from Being Flat Broke to Being a Self-made Billionaire

Kevin Plank may have sold the first Under Armour shirts from the back of his car, but as his reach has grown beyond anyone’s imagination. Billionaire Under Armour founder aims for nothing less than having his firm become the leader in sports apparel and equipment.
But for this self-made man it was a lesson he learned when he was at the absolute rock bottom, with a product prototype so great and not a penny to his name, which has helped drive him through any obstacle.

After launching Under Armour  in 1996 with his $16,000 in life savings after he with his friend Kip Fulks, Plank soon found himself with $3,500 to his name and twice the amount of bills that needed to be paid. In what seemed like a good idea at the time, he took all but $100 out of the bank and left to Atlantic City to gamble. He lost every cent, that he couldn’t pay $2 at the Delaware Bridge toll booth on the way back home.
A day after he lost his life savings, he dropped by his mother’s house for food as he no longer could afford it himself. At that time, he was thinking he made the biggest mistake of his realise, least did he know that this was the biggest lesson life was teaching him. But in the midst of all mishappenings Plank received $7,500 from the athletic director of Georgia Institute of Technology that they owed in payment, just in time so that he could cover his bills. He considered this to be the final call for himself to take charge of his business and lead it to the success it has amassed today.
Two fundamental life lessons Plank learned that day he continues to pass to new entrepreneurs are “Don't blame forces outside of your control for misfortune, and tough it out in the early days rather than taking on investments and giving away equity.”

“You need to put your hands around the throat of your business, and you need to run it. There’s no other way.” - Kevin Plank

Success is the final product of one's constant battle with themselves, the more you believe in your ideas and trust in your abilities to achieve it, you are bound to reach that ultimate goal.

Elon Musk - Success Story of a Space Explorer

Elon Musk says he didn't become an entrepreneur in order to be financially successful but he wanted to profoundly change the world for better. The life story of Elon Musk from an awkward teenager to the most successful inventor, entrepreneur and space explorer recites a thrilling science fiction epic. It’s no surprise that the makers of Ironman found Musk an inspiration for Tony Stark, a character played on screen by Robert Downey Jr.

Born in South Africa, a brilliant engineer, and entrepreneur with vision uncommon to the rest of the world, Elon had humble beginnings, and he always bounced back with the next great idea. He sold his first game program at the age of 12, he moved to Canada at the age of 17, in 1989 to attend Queen’s University and later joined the University of Pennsylvania to study business and physics. He later dropped out after his second day at Stanford to launch his first startup which was sold for a whopping $341 million in cash and stock.

What would a young guy in his early twenties swimming in the unimaginable amount of money do? Yes! Invest those million in his own dreams, that’s what Elon did. His biggest acts were yet to come.

He found X.com which later became PayPal.com which was sold to E-bay in 2002 for $ 1.5 billion. Never one to rest on his achievements he founded his third venture SpaceX with an intention to build spacecraft for commercial space travel. Another revolutionary venture Elon Musk had in store for the world was affordable electric cars to help humanity to break away from the dependence on fossil fuels, Tesla Motors. His story is one classic example of how one must never abandon his/her dreams in life. No matter where life takes us, our determination will take us to that final destination in life where all dreams come true.

Elon’s ideas and visions became true only because he never stopped trying after countless failures and losses. He didn’t relinquish his dreams for the future. Like Elon Musk, we must also continue to pursue our dreams and goals both big and small, assume the risk and step in with courage, it will surely be rewarded with success.