There is a notion in the Indian society that if you have to become a successful person in life, you need to have a proper degree from a good college otherwise you will end up doing mediocre jobs and will lead a miserable life.
However, there are few individuals who have a completely different mindset. They don’t abide by rules and regulations of the society and prefer to make a world of their own. Manan Shah is one of those individuals who refused to walk the tried and tested path and created his own niche.
The Young Entrepreneur
Manan who is just 23 is the founder of Avalance Global Solutions based in Vadodara and deals in cyber security. Just recently, he didn’t sleep for 7 nights as he was busy in finding out the method to fix WanaCrypt Ransomware.
The School Journey
There was a time when his parents were angry with him as he dropped out of school. He had some issues with regard to law and order; however, he didn’t lose hope and faith in himself and believed that he would be able to do something good on his own.
He never liked going to school and doing homework as he never had faith in the formal structure of schooling. Quite amazingly, he says, “I loved being the backbencher.” It seems as if the former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam said this statement for people like Manan, “The best brains of the nation may be found on the last benches of the classroom.”
Born in a middle-class family of Jambusar, Bharuch in Gujarat, he was in love with computer science but used to fail in other subjects. He said,
“My parents were worried about my future. They got me a computer system at home thinking that it might help me improve my academics.”
Interest in Computer Science
Manan got his computer system at the age of 14 and since then, he has never looked back. His computer became his best friend and he started spending most of his time watching videos on cyber security, hacking and programming languages which were available online. However, still his path for the future was not clear and by the age of 15, he was a hardware expert and everyone in the neighborhood or relations used to call him if they needed help in fixing their computers.
Turning point of his life:
Manan’s life took a serious turn after he attended a seminar by Ankit Fadia in 2009 at MS University, Vadodara, which was about ethical hacking. He recollects,
“I wanted to be like him, a coder, hacker whom people would recognize. I wanted to do something in hacking hereon.”
After that, he joined a course on ethical hacking and by the age of 16, he developed Black XP which made Manan famous at the International level, as it became the best download with 20 million downloads all over the world. By the age of 17, he started blogging about hacking and made forum sites. His popularity was increasing by leaps and bounds and he was an internationally recognized ethical hacker till he hit his 18th birthday. During all this time, he was also providing assistance to the cyber cells of police departments and some private organizations but he never charged anything.
His name was registered in the Limca Book of Records and Guinness Book of World Records for the record downloads of Window Black XP. He is among India’s top 10 Ethical Hackers as per Microsoft and Google and is also awarded with the title of MVP – Microsoft Most Valuable Professional.
In 2014, he was offered a job by GoDaddy which he refused when he discovered a cross-site scripting vulnerability on the platform. He told,
“It took me some time to learn about various web vulnerabilities but in the meantime, I started participating on various bug bounty programs of Google, Facebook among others.”
First Step of Entrepreneurship
His life was going on a right track but still his parents had their concerns about his future as earning is also an important aspect, which made Manan think about charging his clients for the work that he was doing for free till now. With his friends, he registered Avalance Global Solutions and got his first assignment just by chance when he visited cyber cell, Vadodara. The client was the owner of a Chemical company. He told,
“The customer’s network had been breached badly and he didn’t know what to do as he had never faced a cyber attack before. I didn’t think twice and travelled 60 kms with him to his plant and helped him resolve the issue.”
Help for Fortune 500 and big banks
At present, Avalance is a globally recognized name in the field of cyber security and they have worked with some big brand names such as Microsoft, Alstom, Novartis, PwC and Unilever. Today, Avalance is providing their services to more than 25 Fortune 100 companies and its turnover has run into crores. The company has also set up its virtual offices in USA and Dubai.
The story of Manan Shah gives us an important lesson that neither age nor college degree is the parameter of being successful in life. It’s all about passion and interest of a person along with his dedication towards his goal which makes him successful.