I Learned a Secret Skill at School. By 21 I Was Millionaire

"Bin Laden." "Taliban." "Sand n*****." These are the kinds of things I was called when my family arrived in America.

I was 12 years old, and it was less than two years after the 9/11 attacks. Tensions were high, and being Muslim immigrants from Pakistan made us suspicious to people who didn't know better.

We had left home for the same reason immigrants come to the United States from all over the world: The hope of building a better life.

But my father, who had a mechanical engineering diploma, discovered that his degree was not recognized by U.S. institutions. So he was working three jobs at gas stations to support our family of five—it soon became six, when my youngest brother was born.

I barely spoke English. I was put into high school at age 12 due to my academic abilities, but that meant just about everyone was bigger than me. So when I was pushed around, picked on, or called racist names, I was careful to avoid a fight.

I spent most of my lunch periods and breaks in the library, on the school computer. I had no idea that isolation would end up providing me an opportunity to launch a business that transformed my life.

I just wanted to play video games, like Tetris and Pac-Man. But the school had a firewall blocking access to those sites. Rather than giving up, I tried to learn more about how firewalls work.

I discovered that I could host my own proxy server that would allow me to connect to other sites. And as long as the school did not block my proxy—which they had no reason to know about—I'd basically have the whole internet available.

So I learned to code, and made the solution work.

Other kids started asking how I was accessing games. I gave them my proxy site information for free, and signed up with a service that placed ads on my domain. So anytime someone clicked on one, I got some money. It was hardly a windfall, but a few bucks started coming my way.

This wasn't my first business. Back in Karachi, I sold holiday greeting cards for Eid at seven years old. Then I sold flags for Pakistan's Independence Day celebration, and started a snack shop at age nine.

But now, the internet opened a new world of possibilities to me. Soon, I created a large proxy network supported by ads and a suite of flash games, so people anywhere could play arcade games online.

I learned about SEO, backlinks, and did everything I could to build and grow these sites on the web. Later I began to sell them.

I started college at University of Florida when I was 16 years old, and kept working on my business, while helping my family financially as needed. At age 17, I sold a website for $25,000.

I needed a car, and didn't know much about how to buy one. So I showed up to a dealer with $20,000 in cash. The dealer was shocked! He said he couldn't accept it, so I wrote the biggest check I had ever written.

Over the following years, I kept building the business while earning my degree. By age 21, I made my first million dollars.

My company, Awesome Motive, creates software that powers more than 25 million websites. We work with some big household brands, but our primary focus is helping small businesses grow and compete with the big guys through our free website training resource, WPBeginner, and our numerous free online growth tools like OptinMonster, AIOSEO, WPForms, and more.

I've designed the company to have a fully distributed workforce all over the world, everyone working remotely. We have team members in over 50 countries. I know from experience that talent is everywhere but opportunities are not, so my goal is to hire the best teammates regardless of their geographical location.

Our employees include young adults in their late teens and early twenties working for us in Pakistan, India, Turkey, and more. We also pay an order of magnitude higher than most local companies, because we want to reward talent everywhere and incentivize building a long-term career with us.

My wife and I have a son of our own, Solomon, who is six years old. He can't imagine the hardships my family underwent, and that's a good thing. But my goal is to help him understand them when he's older.

I want him to know that difficult experiences can fuel you in a positive direction. They can give you the drive and strength to push through hard times, keep your head down, and stay focused on big goals.

Most importantly, they can help you provide a better life for the people you love.

Syed Balkhi is founder and CEO of Awesome Motive.

All views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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