"If I make a million dollars when I'm 18, I don't have to go back to school or attend college." — Erik Finman, dropout and entrepreneur
In 2011, when Erik Finman was just 12 years old, he took the $1,000 his grandmother had given him and invested it in bitcoin. One bitcoin was worth about $10 at that time.
He first learned about bitcoin after his brother took him to a rally at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC. When he saw a man wearing a bitcoin-themed shirt, he asked his brother what bitcoin was. "It’s going to end Wall Street, bro."
Erik began researching bitcoin and could see a bright future. "For three years, I mainly just traded bitcoin and studied at school, and that was it." But he never liked high school.
"People don’t really understand what I’m trying to do, understand what I’m looking for, or what I’m dreaming about. I had a teacher tell me, yeah, drop out, work at McDonald’s because I would never achieve anything more in life," he explained.
So, he dropped out at 15 and made a bet with his parents — if he made a million dollars before turning 18, he wouldn’t have to go back to school or attend college.
Immediately, he sold $100,000 worth of bitcoin and started a business from his bedroom. Inspired by negative experiences at school, he built an education company, Botangle, where teachers would teach students skills via 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 surpassed $2,700, he officially became a millionaire. More importantly, he was 17 years old, so he won the bet with his parents. Instead of going to college, he traveled around the world to Dubai, Hong Kong, Beijing, London, Prague, Sydney, Melbourne, Vienna, and Stockholm.
Today, he has enhanced his bitcoin assets and has a net worth of up to eight figures. He is a key investor in a cryptocurrency startup in Silicon Valley and has helped introduce the Cryptocurrency Act of 2020 as a citizen advocate.
