Brian Kelly is known as The Points Guy, and his website, which he created as a young entrepreneur, combines information on how to maximize credit card points with travel guides for areas all around the world. It shows people how easy it is to save money and travel affordably.
Kelly grew up with a consultant for a father, meaning that his father was constantly traveling for work. His father used the frequent flyer points he saved up to take his family on vacations, which fostered family bonding time and created an appreciation for credit card points in his son. Right out of college, Kelly landed a job at Morgan Stanley that had him traveling half the year, so he gained personal experience bringing in lots of hotel and airline points.
There came a point in Kelly’s life where his coworkers were constantly coming over to his cubicle to ask him for help booking their family vacations. He got advice from a friend to start up a blog using WordPress, and Kelly was off to the races with his dream of sharing his knowledge. He eventually gave in to a friend telling him to put ads on his blog website, and he began making a couple hundred dollars a month. The number of readers continued to rise to the point where Kelly was noticed by Chase Bank, who offered him an opportunity to make a $150 commission for each credit card that a reader signed up for via one of his links. He began making enough money from these commissions that he was able to quit his day job and he eventually was able to sell his company, although he maintains creative control of the site.
It is impressive to see how naturally it all came to Kelly. Of course, he was dramatically influenced by his parents. After that, everything seemed to just fall into place, like he wasn’t even trying. All he did was pursue his passion. It’s easy to be inspired by a guy who is out there doing what he loves and making money off of it. Hopefully, that can be a reality for the rest of us if we learn how to pursue our passions with all we’ve got.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/7-entrepreneurs-who-built-businesses-off-their-love-of/311713
This is an amazing story that you narrated so well. I love the beauty of how naturally this entrepreneurial venture came into being. This and many stories like it certainly relieve a lot of the pressure young entrepreneurial-minded people feel. I always seem to be buzzing with ideas and get eager to work on them even though I don’t have time in my busy college life. However, this shows that people do get around to what they’re eventually supposed to do with their specific passions and proximity to information.