April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Starting a successful business from scratch is by no means an easy or doable task, but some of the youths on Forbes’ top 600 under 30 rich list have done just that.

Their commonality? They had zero debt from the beginning. Regardless of how little they had their lack of debt gave them the chance to delve into what they truly wanted to do. The data did show that the majority of those categorized as the young rich came from middle to upper class families that allowed them the ability to pursue their ambition.

The data, on the other hand, cast a stark comparison to the youths of Korea who prefer stable jobs in order to pay off their student loans.

Based on the data from Forbes, half of the 600 did not take out any student loans. Those who had borrowed between US$11,000 and US$50,000 accounted to 21.5 percent, whereas 9.5 percent had borrowed US$51,000 to 100,000. Only 5 percent, or 30 youths, had burrowed over US$100,000.

Out of the young rich, more than half, 378 people (63 percent), were reportedly born into a middle class family and 102 people (17 percent) into an upper class family. The remaining 120 people (20 percent) were born into a lower class family.

Out of the 600, 27 percent said that they had found their career path during their university years. The other 20 percent had found it while in high school and 23 percent replied that they found it at an even earlier age.

This means that 70 percent had decided on their career path and started outlining their business even before they had graduated from university.

The youths, having spent their entire effort and passion on their careers, defined “success” in different ways.

Half of them said that success is “loving oneself and one’s work,” while 44 percent associated success with “showing one’s full potential.” Out of the 600, 564 people (94 percent) agreed that the largest achievement in life is “working on a job that makes full use of your talent and interests.”

Only a few replied that success is “being the best by getting ahead of others” (4 percent) or “obtaining money and power” (2 percent).

The youth chose Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Virgin Group Chairman Richard Branson, and Co-founder of Microsoft Bill Gates as their role models. These mentors are known to have been debt-free during their youth as well.

Yoon Hyun-jong and Yim Ji-min/The Superrich Team (jiminy@heraldcorp.com)