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Teen Told 'He Wouldn't Amount To Anything' Is Now A Millionaire

Home> News

Published 18:22 18 Feb 2022 GMT

Teen Told 'He Wouldn't Amount To Anything' Is Now A Millionaire

Erik Finman, who is now 22, says he was once told to work at McDonald's but instead invested in Bitcoin

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

A Bitcoin mogul became a millionaire at 18 despite being told he wouldn't amount to anything.

Erik Finman, now 22, started to invest in cryptocurrency when he was just 12 at a time he felt people 'didn't really get what [he] was trying to do'.

Twitter/@erikfinman

Finman initially bought 100 Bitcoins for £700 ($950) and the value skyrocketed, reaching $27,000 (£19,800) per coin by 2017.

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Speaking about people's lack of faith in him, Finman told the Business of Business: "I really didn't like 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. 

Erik giving a TED Talk aged 15.
TEDx

"I dropped out of high school and made a bet with my parents: 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 built the amount of Bitcoins he had to 341, which were worth more than $4.8 million (£3.5 million) by June 2020.

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After some time, Erik said he was 'desperate to get out of crypto' and was 'sick of being the Bitcoin person' so he's recently been putting his finances into aircraft which he said has made 'good money'.

Erik back in 2017.
Facebook

He explained: "I’m tired of crypto, I’m sick of being the bitcoin person, it’s really like if I hear the word 'bitcoin' one more time, I’m going to smash my head against a wall. 

"I put 100 percent of my trading under somebody else.

"I care about building something much more than I care about just trading numbers on a screen. I’ve done bitcoin, crypto trading for six years."

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He's also used his money to build an education business from Silicon Valley, California.

Speaking about his career journey, he went on: "I started a business from my bedroom. I had some bitcoin money at that point—bitcoin shot up a bit, so I was able to use a lot of that to fund my business. 

"I was hiring contractors, freelancers, programmers, employees. Nobody knew I was 15."

Featured Image Credit: Instagram/erikfinman

Topics: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency

Rebecca Shepherd
Rebecca Shepherd

I'm Becky - a journalist at LADbible. I graduated with a First Class BA in Journalism before going on to cover criminal court cases, medical tribunals and breaking news for the national media. Can often be found rocking a bag for life - which I made a thing long before Rihanna. You can contact me at [email protected]

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@RJShepherd94

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