Social media exploded during the early 2000s. Sites Facebook and twitter were bordering a billion users and young entrepreneurs were looking to take advantage and to cut a piece of the actions that seemed to be turning young people into overnight millionaires.
One such person was David Karp, the inventor of Tumblr. Karp after only one year of high school dropped out of high school and finished his education at home and started working on the side. After he finished high school, Karp did not choose to attend university instead skipped straight to the work force and began working as a software consultant. It was in 2007 when he officially opened up his microblogging website, Tumblr to the public. During the initial startup of the website, Karp invested of his own money in order to get the website moving.
From its development the website grew and grew and now hosts more than 250 million blogs.
Karp sold the company to yahoo for 1.1 billion dollars in 2013, and now his net-worth is more than 200 million dollars.
Karp is a wonderful example of a non-linear career path. As stated above, Karp didn’t just go to college or start with this or that internship solely because that is what you do. He looked at his own current situation and assessed what would be the best path for himself to succeed.
This is a really cool post! I think it’s so interesting the path he chose to take, denying the odds. Not everyone finds success the same way, and he found it through innovation outside the “norm”.
This is a great reminder that having a goal and a strong work ethic are crucial to entrepreneurial success. Although he didn’t have a conventional education, he learned what he needed to on the side and was able to focus on his passion instead of doing school full time.
i have friends who use tumblr and love it. yet again another reminder that school does not define your success in life.