Ask HN: Is it necessary to be a child prodigy? | Hacker News Reader

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

4 pointsrick_204714 comments

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

Pyramid schemes are illegal in many countries for a good reason, sooner or later the bottom will drop out and then it invariably turns out they are a net loss to a majority of the participants.

And those near the top are lucky if they escape jail time.

The atmosphere at those meetings is set up to make you euphoric, there are plants all over the audience. Don't get caught up in it and avoid them like the plague they are is all the advice I can give you on this.

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.

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/

If the scheme has been going on for so long that someone has made significant money, it's pretty likely that it's about to fall to pieces.

Pyramid schemes don't "make" money, it's more like stealing from the gullible.

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.

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.

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

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

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... 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.

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.

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

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

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