Rich with social media? Young entrepreneur Max Weiss explains how it works

Mr. Weiss, you are 24 years old and have become a millionaire through social media. It sounds so simple – but can anyone do it?
No, it’s not that easy to become a millionaire. Of course, today you can be more successful than before without good training. But to make a lot of money or even become an entrepreneur yourself, you have to work very hard and sacrifice other things. Many people are not ready for that.

Your social media career began with the birth of Instagram, when you were only twelve years old.
Yes. Until then, all I had ever learned was that work won’t be fun later on. But the influencers showed me that you can also make money with your passion. I found that exciting and started to get more serious about social media. The others went horse riding or playing soccer after school, my hobby was social media postings and online marketing.

What fascinated you so much about it?
My motivation has always been to have a certain amount of freedom in life. My mother once told me that I should take some time off after school and travel because I would never have that much time again later. But I didn’t want a life like that. I knew I wanted to be able to travel whenever I wanted and work wherever I wanted.

You graduated from high school but have already earned money with social media marketing alongside school. How important was school to you?
I’ve always managed to get by with relatively little effort. If I had been more committed, I probably would have gotten better grades. My Abitur was very bad with an average of 3.8, but I haven’t needed it anymore to this day. After secondary school, I actually only went to secondary school because I didn’t yet earn enough from social media for a full-time job. After graduating from high school, I went straight into self-employment with my own social media agency.

You haven’t studied or had any real training. Can you teach yourself everything in the social media business?