How to Be a Millionaire by Age 25

How to Be a Millionaire by Age 25

Wish you were as wealthy as this guy?

Credit: Associated Press

He's Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, and his super-geek-to-billionaire story is the basis of the hit movie The Social Network. "Young people are just smarter," he told a Stanford University audience in 2007. He started Facebook from his Harvard dorm in 2004 as a sophomore. Now he's a 26-year-old philanthropist, recently donating $100 million to the Newark, N.J., school district.

Zuckerberg's youthful fame and fortune makes for a riveting tale. But across America every year, plenty of entrepreneurs make their first million under the age of 25, some in high school. It takes vision, smarts, determination and a little luck. Here are five of them, along with their advice for achieving prosperity.

Michael Dell

Age now: 45
Title/Company: Founder and CEO, Dell Computers
Made his first million by age: 19

Dell launched his computer company in 1984, just before dropping out of the University of Texas. By selling direct, Dell lowered prices and won over customers. At 24, the company had revenues of $258 million. At last check, his estimated net worth was $13.5 billion.

His advice for young entrepreneurs: "You've got to be passionate about it," he said in an interview with the Academy of Achievement.

"I think people that look for great ideas to make money aren't nearly as successful as those who say, 'Okay, what do I really love to do? What am I excited about?' "

Catherine Cook

Age now: 20
Title/Company: Founder, myyearbook.com
Made her first million by age: 18

In 2005, Catherine and her brother founded the social-networking site, which functions like a digital yearbook with pictures, friends and virtual currency called "lunch money." Today, it boasts 20 million members and is one of the 25 most-trafficked Web sites in the U.S.

Her advice for young entrepreneurs: "Stop just thinking about it, and make it happen.

When you're young is the best time to start your own business, as you do not have the responsibilities you will have when you're older. The worst that can happen if you fail now is that you have firsthand experience to make your next venture a success."

Sean Belnick

Age now: 23
Title/Company: Founder, BizChair.com
Made his first million by age: 16

Belnick's been selling business furnishings online for nearly a decade now, but the recent B.A. graduate of Emory University's Goizueta School of Business still saw value in a college education.

His advice for young entrepreneurs: "It is never too early to start. I started when I was 14.There was a lot of great information on the Internet. Just do the research and find a way to do what you want to do."

Juliette Brindak

Age now: 21
Title/Company: Cofounder/CEO, MissOandFriends.com
Made her first million by age: 19 (Brindak won't divulge when she earned her first million, but says that her company was valued at $15 million when she was 19)

At 10, Brindak started drawing the "cool girls" cartoon figures who became stars in 2005 of her online community for tween girls. Today, she is seeking investors and preparing to take the site public as she attends Washington University in St. Louis.

Her advice for young entrepreneurs:: Find a solid support team who believe in your idea. "If someone starts to doubt your company and what you're doing, you need to get rid of them."

Matt Mickiewicz

Age now: 27
Title/Companies: Founder, Sitepoint, 99 Designs and Flippa
Made his first million by age: 22

Mickiewicz, who launched his first company in 1998, points out that the Internet enables immediate customer feedback, making it relatively inexpensive to test and launch new ideas.

His advice for young entrepreneurs: "People who say it takes money to make money are using the worst excuse ever. . . Create massive value for others by providing a solution where no other exists."

Yahoo.com

Monitoring your health with your mobile phone

Monitoring your health with your mobile phone

Imec and Holst Centre, together with TASS software professionals have developed a mobile heart monitoring system that allows to view your electrocardiogram on an Android mobile phone. The innovation is a low-power interface that transmits signals from a wireless ECG (electrocardiogram or heart monitoring)-sensor system to an android mobile phone. With this interface, imec, Holst Centre and TASS are the first to demonstrate a complete Body Area Network (BAN) connected to a mobile phone enabling reliable long-term ambulatory monitoring of various health parameters such as cardiac performance (ECG), brain activity (EEG), muscle activity (EMG), etc. The system will be demonstrated at the Wireless Health Conference in San Diego (US, October 5-7).

Samsung Wave II with 3.7-inch Super-Clear LCD

Samsung Wave II with 3.7-inch Super-Clear LCD

Samsung has unveiled a new Wave handset today – the Wave II. They already have the Wave 2 (Wave 525) but this is Wave II (S8530), the successor of original Wave. The new Wave II has got a subtle revamp and adopts a larger screen – a 3.7-inch one (800×480) but now comes with a Super clear LCD (we assume it’s the same as Super TFT) as compared to original Wave’s 3.3-inch Super AMOLED.

The Wave II has also got a bump on the software side and now brings some improvements like the inclusiion of T9 input method Trace. Think of it as bada’s version of Swype.




As for the remaining features, the phone still has a 1GHz CPU, HSDPA, Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth 3.0, 3.5mm headphone jack, 5MP camera with LED flash and HD video recording, 2GB internal memory, microSD card slot and 1500mAh battery.

The phone will be available in November in Germany for a price of 429 euros ($588).

10 Most Expensive Mobile Phones in The World

10 Most Expensive Mobile Phones in The World

1. Vertu Constellation Monogram

The phone’s body is stainless steel, and the monogrammed leather back is handprinted in a four-hour process.

Price: Around $7,000 online

2. Mobiado Stealth

Its screen is scratch-proof sapphire. Designer Mobiado, based in Vancouver, Canada, produced a limited edition of 1,200.

Price: $2,875

3. Gresso Steel

Aircraft steel and sapphire glass figure in this phone, from Russian company Gresso.

Price: $5,500

4. Toshiba Cosmic Shiner

The Cosmic Shiner resembles more mainstream Toshiba phones, but with two key differences: diamond studs on its cover and a limited edition of 1,000.

Price: $4,000

5. Nokia 8800 Arte from Peter Aloisson

The company covered the Nokia phone with more than 21 carats of pink and white diamonds.

Price: $134,000

6. Apple iPhone by Amosu

London designer Amosu says he was the first to encrust the iPhone in diamonds. His diamond iPhone will set you back almost $40,000.

Price: $39,600

7. Chistian Dior phone

Christian Dior’s first cellphone resembles a sleek cosmetic compact and comes with a clip-on miniature phone that can be worn on a chain or attached to a handbag.

Price: $5,500

8. Tag Heuer Meridiist

Made out of 430 components and corrosion-resistant steel, it also features a crocodile skin back.

Price: $5,400 to $6,200

9. Porsche P9521

This Porsche phone has a fingerprint sensor for security. Its black-glass frame and brushed aluminum hinges are meant to evoke its namesake cars.

Price: $1,900

10. Asus Lamborghini ZX1

Asus teamed with Lamborghini to produce this phone, which has a large touch screen and built-in global positioning system.

Price: Around $1,500

[Source: http://www.forbes.com]

IBM's next slogan: Sexy's out, boring's in

IBM's next slogan: Sexy's out, boring's in

IBM hasn't been cool or sexy for years. The Charlie Chaplin era was cute and yes, Big Blue did legitimate the PC as a business tool. But that's ancient history. This company--never the hippest cat around--turned utterly super square under Lou Gerstner in the 1990s when IBM began to de-emphasize its personal computer business in favor of services, consulting, and infrastructure.

(Credit: IBM)

More than a decade and a half later, the remodeling of IBM started by Gerstner--and his successor Sam Palmisano--has resulted in a very different sort of company from the one I began reporting on in the mid-1980s. Lenovo now runs what used to be IBM's PC business. Even more significant, in 2002, IBM bought PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting for $3.5 billion. At the time of that announcement, The New York Times had it right when it described the deal as a big move by IBM to transform itself into a provider of "information technology to corporate customers as a utility-like service."

Now that the easy times are over, we'll see whether IBM made a prescient bet. Until the clouds lift--and who knows when that will be--repeating revenues obviously are top of mind for Big Blue as well as for its rivals. There's little percentage gain in ringing up transactions for installing a single piece of software with economies around the world heading into a recession (or worse).

So it was that I was particularly interested in IBM's interim report card--its quarterly earnings report--announced earlier this week. IBM announced a 22 percent increase in third-quarter earnings helped to a great extent by the strength of its software and services business. Pre-tax profits at IBM's Global Services segments rose 23 percent (which also was the highest level of services pre-tax margin in six years.) That was fortunate given how IBM's hardware sales dropped 10 percent--and that's also likely a harbinger for other big hardware makers.

Not surprisingly, IBM was in an upbeat mood to trumpet the news as well as its belief that the line between services and software is fast blurring (and maybe it is.)

"What we bring to bear is our knowledge of how the infrastructure works as well as how it fits into a particular business," said Kristof Kloeckner, the vice president responsible for software strategy and technology at IBM. (For that matter, I'm quite sure Hewlett-Packard can make a similar claim, but that's show business.)

With the economy wheezing, every technology provider is going to be under margin pressure. So to the degree IBM can help clients transform their information technology and business agendas, that's money in the bank. And that's going to involve things like service-oriented architecture solutions, new infrastructure development, and business processes.

It doesn't exactly make the pulse race faster. But those bland buzzwords can amount to billions of dollars in recurring revenue streams. Nothing boring about that.

Microsoft expands tech training programs

Microsoft expands tech training programs

Microsoft on Wednesday added yet another way to recruit Windows users: A program to train students in high schools, vocational schools and two- and four-year colleges to work with the software maker's latest technology.

Dubbed IT Academy, the program is billed as a way to prepare students for careers in high tech. While the program is expected to help schools train students for technology jobs, Microsoft also benefits by adding yet another tool in its recruitment arsenal. As it does with software developer programs, which offer tools and training for creating applications that run on Windows operating systems, Microsoft will be able to generate more interest in its products.

Microsoft's ambitious training program underscores the increasing importance of leveraging school programs to maintain market share and public awareness, analysts say. For years, Apple Computer used its near lock on system and software sales to elementary and high schools as a way of keeping up interest in Macs.

"Microsoft has been offering certification programs for its products through vocational schools for years," said Technology Business Research analyst Tim Deal. "It's a very scary prospect that Microsoft can expand its dominion even more into high schools, where the platforms have been fairly agnostic for the most part. Still, I think they're already using Microsoft products, so I don't think that Microsoft is anything new to them."

IT Academy evolved from Microsoft's authorized academic training provider (AATP) program, which started in 1994.

Microsoft revamped the older program mainly because schools wanted "faculty training and early access to the newest technologies," said Diana Carew, Microsoft's program manager of Workforce Development and Community College Relations for the Education Solutions Group. "It takes them typically about 18 months to integrate a new technology into their curriculum, so it's really important (that) through our program, we offer them beta testing opportunities and early training for the faculty, so that they can shorten that time span."

Schools subscribing to IT Academy get access to materials for training students to be technicians and technology managers and receive the latest Microsoft products, including Windows XP and .Net products. But Microsoft does not provide training in competing or non-Microsoft technologies.

Yes, they are just trained in Microsoft products, Carew said. "However, the schools do have the freedom to develop their curriculum, so there are soft skills in the program, so that it's not just product-focused."

Microsoft is offering the program in two levels, costing either $1,500 or $5,000 annually. The program runs from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31. All accredited U.S. or Canadian high schools or colleges are eligible to participate in the first program, but the lower-level one is only available to high schools.

Both levels offer a variety of online training tools, including a private Web site with chat and other interactive features. For training purposes, participants also receive 30 software product licenses, or 100 licenses in the case of the higher-level option. Higher-level participants receive other benefits, including online technical support classes and four onsite visits, access to Microsoft's online technical information, and opportunities to participate in beta programs.

The lower-level option provides either five days of instructor-led Microsoft Certified System Engineer (MCSE) training or seven online courses to one faculty member. The higher-level option extends the training to two faculty members. Instructor training is offered in 14 locations in the United States and two in Canada.

Typically, the MCSE course is a long one, but Carew said the five-day training or seven online courses would be enough for most faculty instructors to pass the certification exams.

"It's training on steroids, because we really wanted to do something that was meaningful for faculty," she said.

But there is a hidden price: The cost of the tests is not included with the IT Academy fee. Schools must pay for the tests separately. To teach, faculty must at least pass the Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) exam, but many students looking to receive the heftier MCSE certificate might expect the same certification from their teachers.

"The MCP is one exam, and for the MCSE, I believe it's seven" separate tests, said Carew, who defended the decision to charge separately for the exams. "There is an academic discount...This is a professional credential the (faculty members) will realize the benefits of in their entire career. It's a real benefit to them."

Google patches Buzz for Mobile security flaw

Google patches Buzz for Mobile security flaw

The fiasco over Buzz's privacy settings is starting to die down now that Google has made several changes, but security experts Tuesday discovered that the Buzz for Mobile service contained a flaw that could allow hackers to run their own code on Google Buzz accounts.

Google has already patched the flaw, which was reported by SecTheory. It was a cross-site scripting vulnerability, which could have allowed an attacker to hijack a Buzz account or run a phishing scam.

Google released a statement regarding the flaw. "We fixed a vulnerability that could have affected users of Google Buzz for mobile on February 16th, hours after it was reported to us. We have no indication that the vulnerability was actively abused. We understand the importance of our users' security, and we are committed to further improving the security of Google Buzz."