

Ask HN: Is it necessary to be a child prodigy? - rick_2047

To day I visited a so-called seminar (which was more like a sales pitch) of a company. The company provides different online courses. There is an option of doing business with a referral system in it. And as such things turn out, the company now focused completely on the business part. As much as I find it foolish that people are paying money to become a member so they can make members and get money and the other members are also there just to make more members which completely leaves out education part, I noticed something strange there. People have actually made money through this (exploiting the foolishness) and all of them were not above 21 or 22. And that too so much that they could buy two or more cars.That made me wonder how dull a life I am living. I mean I am 18 but there is no chance that I would have that kind of money in 4-5 years if I keep working the same way as I do (which is concentrating on my college). I dont know whats the future of these people but there present is sure glamorous.<p>Now I do not compare things which are not comparable. But this is just sticking in my head. I mean if I look around myself there are dozens of child prodigies around, so much so sometimes I wonder if a person can be successful after the age of 25 or 28. This sometimes scares me.<p>So I as HN, as most of you are people here made there own self,usually from scratch. You made startups, you built your own personality, your own fame. You may not have that much money to start with but surely you got there in time. Is it necessary to be a child prodigy to enjoy the money you earn on your own self or if you want to be your own boss?<p>Disclaimer: This post may feel majorly mismanaged, with ideas and words all over the place, but this is because my mind is still whirling with thoughts.
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jacquesm
hey Rick,

Don't become a part of any pyramid schemes!

Regarding the rest of your post:

In my opinion it is absolutely not necessary to be a child prodigy at all,
what is necessary is a certain drive and some self discipline.

If you work only marginally harder than your peers it is quite amazing how
that pays off over the years.

And of course you can be successful after 25, I know a guy that is now in his
sixties that only started his first company when he was 54. He makes more
money than all the youngsters that I know _combined_.

The lucky few that manage to be ahead of the game by the time they're 25 are
solidly outnumbered by the number of people that are well of by the time
they're 40 or 50.

But everybody loves a good story, that's why the media will focus on the 20
somethings.

50 year old guy makes a million is not as good a story as 18 year old guy
makes a million.

~~~
rick_2047
I understand the media point of view but sometimes I get really scared. There
are not much opportunities where I live and such pyramid schemes are actually
very lucrative. They also gave a blown up figure of Rs 24,00,000 in one year
which was presented by a person, from a college which works closely with my
own, who had done it in his second year. I was almost compelled to join

~~~
chaosprophet
Hey did you know that Pyramid Schemes or "MultiLevel Marketing" is illegal in
India???

Also, anything that promises you cash for doing literally nothing is a scam.

One company I knew only paid out cash to a few people. As more people joined
they started giving out gift cheques. Problem was they really weren't cheques
and could not be cashed. Never get involved in an MLM scheme, you are being
swindled out of your time and energy.

~~~
rick_2047
It(the business i am mentioning) cannot be deemed illegal because the actually
are offering something, a degenerate list of courses related to IT. I have
seen the courses, there are even courses for windows 98 and DOS.There is a
course for linux, which uses the a redhat distribution so old that even the
devs may not have the source of it.

But just for an academic discussion, the name of the company is ebiz.com[1]

[1]www.ebizelindia.com/

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Tichy
These referral schemes basically consist of selling junk to your friends. If
doing that is what you consider prodigal and worth aiming for, I don't know
what advice to give you.

College: you typically go to college only once. You have the rest of your life
to earn money and buy lots of cars. While I don't consider college a strict
necessity anymore, I think it can be fun and worthwhile (and it probably costs
more than buying two cars btw). Which would you rather have, 4 good,
unforgettable years at college or two cars?

Younger and younger successful people: sure, it is scary. But they will grow
up, too, and on the internet, nobody knows you are a dog. Meaning it is the
product or service that counts, not your age. So if you find a spin to make
money later on, where is the problem?

As a side note, I would not believe everything people tell you at such sales
seminars.

Edit: they don't mention the "sell stuff to your friends" part until you sign
up.

~~~
ja27
The other scam those referral schemes is having your upstream / recruiter
person give sales pitches to your friends and family members as "training". In
reality, all they're doing is milking your best sales prospects (and offending
your friends and family).

Run away.

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mahmud
Everything that you saw in the "seminar" was staged. Run for your life Rick.

~~~
rick_2047
I already did run for my life from there. But you know the energy was really
very good even if fake.

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keefe
It's worth noting that the average person starting a successful company is not
in his early 20s. [http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842907756695817/the-average-
en...](http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842907756695817/the-average-
entrepreneur.html) That's one article discussing this, there are others. The
reason you hear about all the rich millionaires is that they make good stories
and they're rare - people just don't talk about the guy working hard through
his thirties to make a few million. Also, look at the big entrepreneurs - they
very often come from MIT, Stanford, etc. and get their initial funding either
from rich family or connections made at those schools.

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bayareaguy
Remember that one method scammers use to exploit the ignorant and unfortunate
is to tempt people with a glamorous lifestyle. If you think there is a scam
going on and you aren't already "in" on it then you could be a target. Don't
be fooled.

Make something people want. If you're young then you have plenty of time to
succeed by doing something worthwhile instead of ultimately impoverishing
everyone through trickery.

------
FreeRadical
It's more important to be able to identify and act upon opportunities if you
want to make money (or just be lucky).

~~~
jacquesm
I think it is a combination of both. "luck favors those that are prepared for
it".

