* I wrote a book on ActionScript when I was 14 * Dropped out of school the same age (8th grade) * Wrote another book on Flash when I was 18 * Worked as a rem

* I wrote a book on ActionScript when I was 14 * Dropped out of school the same age (8th grade) * Wrote another book on Flash when I was 18 * Worked as a remote consultant from ages 15 to 18 * Still working as a remote consultant for startups (I'm now 24) I had a great start but I think enjoying success (and money) too early in life can be extremely distracting. I stopped achieving when I started making over 50kUSD a year. Also got into a lot of debt. Not too clever after all. Best thing I did, tho, was quitting Flash and getting into server-side development. Learned Python and then Ruby, now back to Python (but still doing lots of Ruby). I think the biggest lesson I learned is that no matter what you do, make sure you use at least SOME of your time doing something for yourself. Start getting businesses out the door as soon as you can and don't stop until you're successful with one of them. All you need is to get yourself to start -- understand Parkinson's Law and the 80-20 rule. It gets easier over time.