Who says, “money can’t buy happiness”? It’s always good to cry in an Audi than in a cycle 😀
Jokes apart, today we present the story of a man who has proved that money indeed has the power to buy happiness and ultimate joy. This article is about Manish Bhattacharya, a self made man, as written on his profile on Quora.
There was a time when he didn’t have money to pursue engineering. With the help of scholarship, he passed 12th with 65% marks but failed to qualify IIT-JEE and AIEEE. After dropping a year to prepare on his own since he was unable to afford coaching expenses, he got good result the next year; however, it was not that good to enable him to get admission in government colleges.
After struggling a little for education loan, he got admission in a private college. In the 2nd year of engineering, he came to know about a term called “Bug bounty program” where big companies pay for reporting security issues in their websites. He learnt about security for one year and got a cheap laptop.
And you won’t believe what happened next! He reported few security bugs to Facebook one Sunday afternoon and got a mail from Facebook Monday evening. Facebook gave him a whopping sum of $5000 which means Rs. 3 lacs and needless to say, this was a really huge amount for Manish who had never seen this big amount in his account ever!
Here’s his complete story as posted on Quora when a user asked, “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 college 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 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 friend 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 second year I came to know about this term Bug bounty program , where big company pay for reporting security issues in 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 in my dad’s account.
Next day I took the day off from classes to calm down but one of my teacher called and asked me to come (It was all over my Facebook).
I made a guest appearance for 5 minute with a copy of 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 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, no doubt, a great lesson for all of us and teaches that we should never give up and always make utmost efforts to pursue our dreams!
Do share your views with regard to the article in the comments section below.
Source: Quora