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Ben Grant, 25, grew up in a working-class city in England.
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He got into sales at 16 and became a millionaire last year at 24.
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When former classmates started asking him for money, he moved abroad.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ben Grant, CEO of Learn Sales. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Growing up, my family didn’t have much money, but we always got by. Sometimes classmates would have the newest iPhone, but I never did. Still, I never went without the things I needed.
My dad worked in the police force, and my mom worked part-time in the tax office. They never brought home a combined income of more than £45,000 (about $68,000). That was normal in Sunderland, England, the working-class town where I grew up. Kids like me were taught to have an employee mentality: go to school, get a job, and show up every day.
Early on, I knew I didn’t want to settle for average. I finished school at 16 and started working in a call center for minimum wage. That was my first exposure to sales. I realized that with sales, I could be in control of my own payslip at the end of the month. Thanks to commissions, there was no cap on what I could earn. My income was directly tied to how hard I worked.
As soon as I started making money, I reinvested it in myself. I did sales courses and seminars, which made me better and better with this skill set. Soon, I was headhunted by companies that did business-to-business (B2B) sales. Many people in my town made £30,000 (about $38,000), but people in B2B sales made 10 times that. I wanted to be them.
I worked methodically to get big paychecks and save my money. It’s like going to the gym: when you show up every day, you don’t see the small changes, but when you look back at progress photos of where you started, there’s a dramatic difference.
Last year, I had $1 million in liquid assets in the bank. That was surreal. I was only 24.
Even before I became a millionaire, I noticed that people started treating me differently. Suddenly, the popular crowd — who never paid attention to me in school — started inviting me out. Once I was there, they expected me to pay.
I prefer to keep to myself. I have one small Instagram account for family and friends, but otherwise, I don’t spend time on social media. In the small city I lived in, I stood out because of my financial success at such a young age. I didn’t like that, and I didn’t want to be treated differently because of my wealth.