One such man is Jared Isaacman, who once lived in the basement of his parents’ house in New Jersey and was a high school dropout. Today, however, he is an illustrious entrepreneur and space-exploring billionaire, one of the precursors to the new era of space exploration. Such humble beginnings eventually paved the way for him to become a millionaire and to even go out for a spacewalk on the Polaris Dawn mission. With this kind of entrepreneurial and space-obsessed journey, his roots may speak of being a dropout, but by the adrenaline of his success, he is touted as the best entrepreneur in the world.
From Dropout to Billionaire: Isaacman’s Entrepreneurial Journey
Isaacman left school when he was 16 to start his entrepreneurial endeavor. He founded Shift4 Payments, a payment processing firm, and started the business by just writing a check for $10,000 from his grandfather’s account so that he could invest in his new venture. He ran the business from the basement of his childhood home. Such were early problems, yet Isaacman’s company quickly grew into a leading player in its market in the payment processing.The company has a market capitalization of $7.4 billion, and over 2,000 people are employed by Shift4 Payments nationwide. Isaacman credits much of his success to the early experiences and his team in setting up the company, bringing him to billionaire status.
First Civilian Spacewalk on Polaris Dawn Mission
On Thursday, Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis became the first nonprofessional astronauts in space-walk history. The test was performed during the five-day Polaris Dawn by SpaceX, marking a large step for private exploration and travel into space. The company is forming partnerships with civilian astronauts like Isaacman to pioneer new lands in space travel.Isaacman always wanted to go into space, telling people, “I decided I was going to go to space when I was 5 years old. I was pretty calculated about it at that point; it just took me a little while to get it into motion.”. In 2009, he flew a Cessna Citation CJ2 to circume the globe in just less than 62 hours, almost 20 hours better than the previous record holder. He continued pursuing his interest in aviation and in 2012 founded Draken International, which trains student pilots to be part of the United States Air Force. In 2020, Isaacman sold Draken International for nine figures in an amount not disclosed and had cemented his success.
Current Future of Space for Isaacman
Other ventures that Isaacman has in space would be only a tip of an enormous iceberg. He funded and led the first all-civilian mission to space aboard the Dragon Space Capsule by SpaceX and continues pushing forward with the Polaris Dawn Mission.“As far as I’m concerned, I’m super lucky in life,” Isaacman said to Bloomberg before his historic spacewalk. “Teenage basement startup, just trying to buy pizza on the weekend, and it’s turned into quite the empire.”
He is not just dedicated to space exploration through his personal achievements but also wants to open doors for many other civilian space missions that pave the way for humanity’s journey into the cosmos.
Jared Isaacman is the symbol of determination and vision, who was a high school dropout but became a tech billionaire and space pioneer. His business and space exploration exploits inspire by paving the path for civilians to explore space as astronauts and pioneers in the private space travel industry.
