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.