Okay, so most high school dropouts end up being McDonalds workers or something that doesn’t make much money, but then there are those high school or college dropouts that end up being extremely successful and then some. Take Bill Gates for example, but let’s face facts, Bill Gates is a freak, in more ways than one. The man had the opportunity to attend the equivalent of an ivy league high school, he was exposed to more computer related technology than 95% of the population at that time, and he had a clear advantage, as did Steve Jobs. Right place, right time, right age.
However, that does not mean that there are not 20 something year old millionaires who didn’t just get it right. There’s no luck involved. If it were all luck, business would go down and you would go bankrupt like Donald Trump. You have to be at least somewhat intelligent.
Growing up in East San Jose, you wouldn’t think that Gurbaksh Chahal would be successful at all, let alone a millionaire. He struggled to fit in as a recent emigrant from India, and at the age of 4, he wore traditional Sikh coverings from head to toe. He was called a patka at school. Yes, even back then, kids were mean. However, instead of bowing to what he has called the wild, wild west for minorities
, Chahal has risen above.
He depended on his close-knit family at the time for support, and he used this support to become entrepreneurial when most teenagers just act out against parents and family. He dropped out of high school at 16, started a business, and of course his family had to allow this at that age. However, he has never looked back.
Originally, Chahal founded ClickAgents in December of 1998. Just less than 2 years later, he sold that business for $40 million, which could sustain plenty of people for an entire lifetime. However, he still wanted to work, which was why he started the online advertising company BlueLithium in 2004. Yahoo paid $300 million for that company. Currently, Chahal, now 29, is working with RadiumOne, an expanding ad network that pushes social data on the internet.
Chahal took a positive approach to his life, noting that he never expected to be the most popular kid in school, the prom king, a big jock, or anything else. He fell in love with the internet and business, and he was determined to succeed. He was inspired by close family relations and he recommends,
”Don’t focus so much energy on what you’ve lost, focus on what you need to win. There will be times when you may lose $1 million in deals. You’ll think it’s the end of the world, but the next day you may make $1.2 million. Nothing is meant to always work out. You just need a plan B.”