The success story of Jan Koum, founder of WhatsApp

For young people they are the hope of any country, especially if young people are mature and thinking young people, and there are many stories that show us the energy that young people possess and the capabilities that they possess, especially in light of the bad conditions they have experienced since childhood, and our story today is about one of the most young people To achieve success, he is Jan Koum, founder of the famous WhatsApp website, and how he started his life poor until he became a billionaire thanks to his intelligence and diligence. We hope that you will enjoy reading this story and we hope that you will like it.

Jan Koum was born in Ukraine in one of the small villages and that was in 1976 AD, Jan was the only child of his parents and the family was living in a state of extreme poverty, due to the difficult economic conditions in which Ukraine was living, Jan's mother decided to take him to live in the United States of America Jean was only 16 years old at the time.

Upon arriving in the United States of America, the American government provided Jan Koum and his mother with a lot of help. They provided them with a house to live in, in addition to abundant food. Jan began working as a cleaner in a grocery store. His mother worked as a babysitter. The father did not go with his son. His wife to the United States of America, Jan was dreaming of the day when the family would be reunited.

After Jan Koum reached the age of 18, his love for computer science and programming increased, so he borrowed books related to this field from his friends to study and then return them to them. at Stanford University after completing his high school education with distinction.

Jan Koum obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1994 AD, and during his studies at the university, Jan Koum worked as a security guard in a security company in order to provide the expenses of studying at the university. While working at Yahoo, Jan Koum got to know his best friend (Brian Acton).

The two friends dreamed of working for Facebook, but their dream was rejected. The company did not agree to hire either of them. This was not Jan’s first misfortune. In 1997, his father died in Ukraine, and three years later Jan’s mother fell ill with cancer that killed him. Her life in the year 2000 AD, and thus Jan Koum's dream of reuniting the family evaporated, leaving him only his loyal friend Brian Acton.

During the following years, Yahoo's reputation began to collapse and the company's future seemed unclear, so the two friends decided to leave the company in 2007 AD, and tried hard to start a new project or search for a new job. During the first years he spent in Ukraine, Jan noticed the lack of so-called privacy, so he thought Jean and his friend in creating a program that preserves privacy and maintains the confidentiality of conversations between people.

At that time, Jean and Brian created the WhatsApp application and presented it to a group of friends and began to take notes and the problems that were encountering them, and in the end the application came to light to turn into what it is today, which is the most famous messaging application in the world, until the company Facebook, which was Jan and Brian dream of working with her so she buys WhatsApp for a record amount of $19 billion, then Jan Koum turns from that poor young man who worked as a security guard and cleaner in the past to one of the richest and most successful men in the world.

Lessons learned from the story

It is not necessary to show talent or passion from a young age, so if you love a certain field, you should strive and study it hard. From the mother and father, they spare no effort to make their children happy and help them achieve what they aspire to, even in the worst cases of poverty. Mothers always try to make their children live a better life, in other words, you are the one who can change your life for the better by working and diligently.

One of the lessons also learned from our story today is the extent of the friend’s influence in life. In our story today, we find that Jan Koum’s friend was the one who stood by him after the death of Jan’s father and mother, and he was the one who started with him the path of glory since working together at Yahoo until the emergence of an application WhatsApp for the light and selling it with a lot of money, and there is a well-known wisdom that says: (choose the friend before the road), so if you are looking for success and aspire to achieve it, first choose the one you accompany to help you reach your goal.