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Success is a journey, not a destination. If anyone knows this statement better, it would be Gurbaksh Chahal. He was born in Tarn Taran Sahib in Punjab, India to Avtar Singh and Arjinder Chahal. In 1985, his parents received a visa for America through the Diversity Visa (DV) program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, and the following year, when he was four, the family settled in San Jose, California.
Upon arriving in this new world, Chahal had the spare time to work various side jobs and make thousands of dollars refurbishing printers from a local flea market for $50 and then would turn around and sell them on eBay for $200. He was able to buy low and sell high, thus beginning his passion for business. All of the money he earned, he began to a startup company called ClickAgents at the age of 16. After a few years, he sold his business, ClickAgents, for $40 million dollars!
He then began his second business, an online advertising company, BlueLithium. BlueLithium specialized in behavioral targeting of banner advertising (a process that tracks web users’ habits online in order to show ads they are most likely to respond to). On October 15, 2007, Yahoo! bought Blue Lithium for $300 million in cash( Reuters ). Chahal remained CEO of the company through the transition period.
Despite a rough and bullied childhood, Chahal found a way to give back to those in poverty, as he deeply believes the power of helping others also achieve their goals and dreams like himself, and encouraged to continue to help those who are one of the most vulnerable members of our society- children. He started his own charity which became a national movement, called The Chahal Foundation. His 5 core tenants include supporting disaster relief efforts, improving schools in third world countries, creating awareness of social causes, giving university scholarship and mentorship and building an overall awareness to eradicate child sex trafficking.
To add even more to his already filled plate, Chahal wrote a novel called The Dream: How I Learned the Risks and Rewards of Entrepreneurship and Made Millions. One of America’s most successful young internet entrepreneurs, he shares his unique and inspiring story with the world and how he can encourage those to pursue their dreams early and continue to fight for what you want out of life. A true success story, having emigrated to the United States with his Skh family, today he is now now one of the youngest executives of a multi-billion dollar NADSAQ-listed company. His novel shares that advice for future entrepreneurs to help them embrace that risk and carve out their new niches in the marketplace. He emphasizes the value of good business timing: how to execute an idea and get it to the marketplace, how to create and maintain solid business relationships, and how to stay grounded. However, most importantly, Chahal teaches yourself that failure is not an option and how to overcome it.
So, what does it take to become extremely successful, two large multi-million dollar companies, a novel and a philanthropic foundation all under your name? Determination. Chahal’s success story from rags to riches isn’t the first that we’ve heard but one that continues to inspire anyone that meets “G” in real life or follows up with his business plans and reads his novel. Today, Chahal has various businesses under his belt and shares a motto that keeps him moving forward “ If you genuinely want something, don’t wait for it- teach yourself to be impatient.” This rings true today of those who really want something but are not going to wait around for the opportunity to come to them because anything worth wanting will not simply make its way around.
In order to really get what you want, you need to take the initiative, waste no opportunity and create your opportunity to make it available. We can all learn so much from Chahal’s story, his fame, his philanthropic foundation and his love for helping those around him share their goals and passions so they too, can help others with their own goals in life. An inspiration to many, nothing stands in the way of Chahal’s dreams and I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more great things to come from this motivational business individual.
