INTERNET MILLIONAIRES THAT EMERGED FROM NO WHERE TO THE LIME LIGHT.
Allen
Wong Makes Millions With A Police Scanner App
Allen Wong was barely an adult when
he made a simple little app available to the masses. 5-0 Police Scanner may or
may not be the most popular way to listen in to the police, but it did rocket
Allen from being the first man in his family with a full time job to a seven
figure yearly income. Wong went from being the son of a NYC Chinatown sweatshop
worker to a Lamborghini collector thanks to paid downloads, advertising
royalties, and his app being featured in a Spiderman movie.
Allen is further proof that the
mobile app market can indeed be bigger than a winning lottery ticket for an
inventive, hard working coder. Allen spent his nights, lunches and weekends
teaching himself to code while working at Columbia University. His goal was to
make a little side money to help support himself.
How did his life change due to the
success of his coding? According to his Reddit AMA, “During my free time, I
code apps, do photography, write books, do volunteer work, give free advice to
young entrepreneurs, help less fortunate people, and enjoy our short time here
on Earth.” As for the best part of having a lot of money? Being able to wake up
whenever he wants. Some guys you just can’t change.
Amanda
Hocking Is A Self-Published Success
Once upon a time there was a British
record exec who told The Beatles they’d never amount to anything. That man
committed suicide and his soul was divided up and passed on to the editors of
several traditional publishers who wouldn’t take a chance on Amanda Hocking.
Amanda Hocking is one of those
rarest of creatures: A highly successful self-published author. Before she was
that, however, she was one of the most common of creatures: The poor,
frustrated novelist. In April 2010, the soon-to-be-millionaire uploaded one of
her novels in a desperate bid to raise $300 for a road trip to see a Muppets
show. She needed to raise it in six months. And she did. Plus $20,000.
Amanda’s imagination has spawned a
host of young adult fantasy ebooks, a small legion of dedicated fans, and the
regretful sobs of the publishing executives who turned down her pitches. Amanda
has, of course, been approached by traditional publishers since her resounding
success. She has, of course, turned them down. What can they offer her that she
doesn’t already have?
Self publishing offers several
advantages over traditional publishing: Much more favorable royalty shares,
greater editorial control, and no one forcing you to produce what they wish. It
also offers serious challenges, the greatest being publicity. If your novel
connects with its audience, like Amanda’s, that takes care of itself. Good on
you, Ms. Hocking!
The
Rad Brad – King Of The YouTube Game Walkthrough
Brad Colburn is who every 15 year
old boy wants to be when he refuses to grow up. “Rad Brad” is a man who loves
video games and gets paid to play them. The self-proclaimed king of the You Tube game walkthrough captures movies
of himself playing video games and describing the experience, uploads them to
YouTube, and collects a check for his troubles.
TheRadBrad is hardly the only
walkthrough channel on YouTube, but he is undoubtedly one the most popular and
entertaining. What makes him different? Besides his dedication to constantly
recording and uploading, it’s Brad’s smooth, entertaining voice. It is that
voice that allowed Brad to turn down the offer of a corporate job to pursue
exercising his thumbs 40 hours a week and making a great living at it as the
president of his own corporation. The man announced, as he thanked his fans,
that he has insured his voice against damage.
Eat your hearts out.
Satoshi
Nakamoto Invents His Own Money
Satoshi Nakamoto is the epitome of
the jocular reply to a classic question. When asked, “How do you make your
money,” Satoshi can honestly reply, “The old-fashioned way. I print it myself.”
While that’s not exactly true, he did invent his own currency. Bitcoin.
The enigmatic creator of the first
and most popular cryptocurrency is believed to hold over $400 million worth
of the digital money and, indeed, they are nothing but the fruit of his
imagination.
You could consider bitcoins to be a
consensually shared hallucination, though really they function on the same principle that
regular money does: They have value because and only because the people who
trade in them agree that they have value. They appear on your computer
seemingly from the ether, the product of a mining program running on a PC. The
only work done to create them being opening and running said program. The only
byproduct being heat, the only expense being electricity.
It is believed that Satoshi invented
Bitcoins out of frustration with the difficulty of sending wire transfers
overseas to purchase model trains. He imagined an internet-native, border-free
currency and from his imagination he created bitcoins. He started mining them
right away and they skyrocketed in his net worth did as well. You could say
he literally dreamed up his fortune.
