No question about it, young teen millionaires capture our imagination. That's how powerful young techpreneurs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg rose in global dominance to become not only magnets of unimaginable wealth but more importantly primary forces of lasting change in a rapidly-changing world.
Today, more than ever, young teen millionaires are on the rise, thanks to the workings of technology. But if there was one thing that money would teach - and perhaps Warren Buffett would preach - is that getting to your first million is one thing, keeping it is another.
Never Too Young to Earn
A recent Inc. report showed how 40 young men got to their millions before they even turned 20.
Frankly, it makes a lot of people squirm.
Ashley Qualls; Judith Brindak; Sean Belnik; Adam Horowitz; John Koon. Just to name a few.
And yes, the list also includes billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.
What is immediately obvious is these crafty individuals started early, most in their early teens and that more often than not, they made their mark via technology as apparent in the websites that they put up to carry their businesses.
From creating websites, offering computer services, teaching others online skills to Facebook.
And then there is the New York whiz kid Mohammed Islam who made a cool $72 million trading stocks on his lunch break at school.
He's just 17, drives a BMW and goes to Stuyvesant High School.
Never too Old to Lose
But easy come, easy go as the saying goes.
Though there may exist a lot more millionaire opportunities today, there is no million-dollar guarantee that young men and women will be able to keep their millions upon earning them.
And many have stumbled.
The perils of investing is as real to a savvy entrepreneur as billionaire Donald Trump as it is for a fledgling businessman.
Classic example: Jordan Belfort.
Many may not know Jordan Belfort, a savvy millionaire stockbroker who once had everything a young man could want: a private helicopter, 166-foot yacht, Long Island mansion and Manhattan penthouse, reports New York magazine.
But more likely than not, you've seen him. Or to be exact his life.
You see, he wrote his life in his memoirs and entitled it "The Wolf of Wall Street," a literary piece that was the very basis for the Leonardo Di Caprio-led movie of the same title.
Perhaps, this is the reason why Mark Zuckerberg hired mentors to teach him how to handle the grey area called money.
It seems, being a young teen millionaire is just the start.
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