. “If I make a million dollars by the time I’m 18, I don’t have to go back to school or go to college.” — Erik Finman, high school dropout and entrepreneur

In 2011, when Erik Finman was only 12 years old, he took $1,000 his grandma had given him and invested it in bitcoin. A single bitcoin was worth around $10 at the time.

He first discovered bitcoin after his brother took him to a protest held at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC. When he saw a guy with a bitcoin shirt on, he asked his brother what bitcoin is. “It’s going to end Wall Street, bro.”

Erik began researching bitcoin and could see a bright future. “For three years, I just was basically doing bitcoin trading and school, and that was about it.” But he never liked high school.

“People didn't really get what I was trying to do, get what I was searching for or what I was dreaming of. I had one teacher tell me, yeah, drop out, work at McDonald’s since I’ll never amount to anything more in life,” he explained.

So he dropped out of high school at 15 and made a bet with his parents — if he made a million dollars by the time he was 18 he didn’t have to go back to school or go to college.

Immediately, he sold $100,000 of bitcoin and started a business from his bedroom. Inspired by his negative school experience, he built an education company, Botangle, where teachers would teach students skills over video chat. For example, an Australian wanting to learn Japanese could hire a private tutor in Tokyo. Two years later, he sold his company for 300 bitcoins.

When bitcoin crossed $2,700 he was officially a millionaire. Critically, he was 17 years old, so he won the bet with his parents. Instead of going to college, he travelled the world visiting Dubai, Hong Kong, Beijing, London, Prague, Sydney, Melbourne, Vienna, and Stockholm.

Today he’s grown his bitcoin holdings and has a net worth of 8 figures. He’s a key investor in a Silicon valley cryptocurrency startup and helped introduce the Crypto-Currency Act of 2020 as a citizen advocate.

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