Here is a real story of a boy who has proved that money truly has the power to buy happiness and joy. Meet Mr. Manish Bhattacharya, a self-made man, whose life has taken a U-turn and changed him totally.
Manish while pursuing engineering, he has faced a lot of problems and he didn’t have money to pay the college fee. Earlier, with the help of the scholarship, he passed 12th with 65% marks but failed to qualify IIT-JEE and AIEEE. He took a year to prepare on his own as he was unable to afford coaching expenses. He, however, got a good result the next year.
Still, it was not that good to enable him to get admission in government colleges. He struggled a lot for study loan and got admission in a private college. While he was in 2nd year, he came to know about a term called “Bug Bounty Program”. It means big companies pay for reporting security issues in their websites.
He spent almost one and a half year to learn about the security management. Meanwhile, he got a cheap laptop. His hard work resulted in a happy ending. He reported few security bugs to Facebook which in reply gave him a whopping amount of $5000 (Rs 3 lakhs). This was a really huge amount for Manish who had never seen this big amount in his account ever.
This article was written by Manish Bhattacharya, on his profile on Quora:
He answered this question, “What was the most magical moment of your life?”
“When Facebook paid me $5000.
Those people who say “Money can’t buy happiness” are dead wrong.
I did my 12th on scholarship. Got 65% marks in 12th and failed to qualify IIT-JEE and AIEEE. Dropped a year to prepare on my own, was not able to afford the extra financial pressure of coaching. Next year result was better but not good enough to get admission in government colleges.
My father said, “we can’t afford engineering, join the local college for B.Sc”.
That was tough for me; I contacted few private colleges and got to know I can get admission on my present rank and 12th marks.
But “Where’s the money?” dad asked.
“Give me 25K, that’ll confirm the admission and then we’ll talk to banks for education loan” I replied.
“I earn 8k per month, 25k is a big deal but don’t worry I’ll ask my boss if he could help” dad replied.
Next day he borrowed 25k from his boss, asked one of his friends to convert that in DD (demand draft). I got the DD by 5 PM and next day took a general ticket to Delhi.
I got the admission and later with little struggle got the loan as well.
From the 1st day, there was this extra pressure of loan.
Somewhere in the second year, I came to know about this term Bug bounty program , where the big company pays for reporting security issues on their website. It took me almost a year to learn in and out of security; meanwhile, I got a cheap laptop.
And one Sunday afternoon I reported few security bugs to Facebook (notes and message).
Monday evening I got a mail from Facebook and Bang!
I was not able to sleep that night. $5000 (3 lakh) was a big deal; I had never seen that much amount in my account or even on my dad’s account.
Next day I took the day off from classes to calm down but one of my teachers called and asked me to come (It was all over my Facebook).
I made a guest appearance for 5 minutes with a copy of the W-8BEN form in my hand. (Someone clicked this pic), whole class congratulated.
Next day it was in newspaper.
After this I never stopped, I became financially independent. Paid my education loan that year, got clients from all over the world, contributed to the security of 500+ websites.
Now Ranked #62 (worldwide) on Google bug bounty program & Vulnerability Reward Program
Made my first million in college and got covered by national/international newspapers and blogs.
This story is a great lesson for all of us and it teaches that hard work never ends with a disappointment. Hard Work always ends with Success.