While most adults don’t recommend dropping out of high school in order to have future success, there seems to be a trend featuring young people dropping out to pursue bigger and better things. The latest case of this trend can be seen in the person of Ben Pasternak. Pasternak was just a bored fifteen year old in Science class when he created Impossible Run, a game centered around geometry which sent him near the top Apple’s App Store.
Ben’s parents finally let Ben drop out of high school to pursue a new app once he had sufficient money to create the app. Ben took advantage of his new opportunity and created another application called Flogg, which could be described as a eBay and Tinder hybrid. While this may seem odd to some, this app is well designed and thought out. Essentially, the app serves as a market to sell unwanted products, which is the eBay aspect. The manner in which customers show interest or disinterest in a product is where Tinder comes into play, as customers can swipe left or right on the product.
Ben’s innovation came from noticing services that were already present (Tinder and eBay) and tinkering with them to provide a service which would change the way people sell items. As a young entrepreneur who grew up in Sydney, Australia and now lives in New York City with his own 2 million dollar company, it’s safe to say that Pasternak won’t being going back to school to finish his degree.
Wow, the idea for Flogg is really unique! Which is funny, because it is essentially a combination of two other pieces of software. This is just another great example of how successful a well-thought mashup can be.
It’s crazy that he’s a millionaire-but-high-school-dropout. I like how he took what already existed and created a new product using familiar techniques. Innovation doesn’t have to be a huge new thing; it can be something simple, such as an app.
The trend of dropping out of high school or college to pursue a business has some value, but it should also be considered what may also have been lost in failing to finish school. Could they have possibly taken their business ideas to the next level in college? Found valuable mentorship which showed them an even greater opportunity? There is a lot of unique opportunity which can be lost by avoiding a higher education.
Having a shopping app that is simply about an algorithm to tailor finds to you specifically is genius. Good for Pasternak for both thinking about an idea like that at his age and having the guts to go against convention and drop out..