Tycoon, 24, shares secrets of his success

Pretoria-born entrepreneur Albert van Wyk with his book ‘How To Be A Millionaire At 22’. Picture: Bongani Shilubane/ANA Pictures

Pretoria-born entrepreneur Albert van Wyk with his book ‘How To Be A Millionaire At 22’. Picture: Bongani Shilubane/ANA Pictures

Published Jun 6, 2017

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Pretoria-  Pretoria is home to one of the youngest self-made millionaires in the country – and he is everything but a nerd.

Albert van Wyk of Waverley is young, funky and has a head for business.

He made his first million at the age of 22, the first of many, he promised.

Van Wyk is now 24.

This energetic young man is not shy to share his knowledge on how to make a fortune with others.

He has launched his first book, titled How To Become a Millionaire at 22.

“It is an initiative book with the main purpose of getting you filthy rich… just kidding; it's deeper than that,” Van Wyk joked.

The book is all about equipping readers with the necessary tools to become financially established and independent.

It’s a practical and realistic guide to assist people in building a foundation that will enable them to achieve great success without financial and mental barriers.

Everyone had it in them to become a millionaire if they set their mind to it, Van Wyk said.

He is living the dream of many South African youths to be a millionaire before the age of 30. It’s all about hard work, taking advice and not being afraid to take chances.

His father was one of his biggest inspirations for his millionaire state of mind.

“My dad taught me that if you want to become a millionaire, you need to learn from a millionaire,” he said.

With these thoughts ringing in his mind, he started to read books about other millionaires and learning from their success.

Van Wyk has always had a head for business and while other children played, he thought of ways to make lots of money.

During his primary and high school years, he ran a small businesses on the side and that experience really taught him about making money, losing money and the value of money.

Van Wyk reminisces on his early years alongside his younger brother, as he walked down the street with a can of paint, sketching the numbers on the street curves in the community for a fee. He also started selling cheap toys he had bought, at school.

Through his hard work in matric, Van Wyk managed to get a bursary for his tertiary education.

“When I started matric I had this deal with my dad that if I can get a bursary, I would like to keep the fees from the bursary.”

Van Wyk used all that money and invested it in property.

He had previously read about property investment and it was one of his many goals to become a property baron.

Today, he makes his money from properties and several other small business.

From an early age he appreciated both the financial aspect of business and optimisation of a business and this is the reason why he studied industrial engineering at the University of Pretoria.

Although Van Wyk is a qualified industrial engineer, he worked for a company for a year and took a big risk when he decided to quit his job and to rather focus on his businesses.

With his passion for entrepreneurship, Van Wyk admits to enjoy working with start-up businesses and to give it all he has to make it a success.

He recently returned to the University of Pretoria to give a lecture about his successes on becoming one of the country’s youngest millionaires.

His next plan is to go to schools in his communities and then broaden his horizon as he aims to make an impact on more of the country’s youth.

Van Wyk believes that if the will is there, there are many opportunities out there to make money.

Even with his success, Van Wyk still remains humble and goal driven to achieve all he wants to achieve.

He said one must understand that it takes hard work and the right mindset. “To work hard is also a lifestyle,” he says.

Van Wyk said it took him two years to write his book and the main objective was to create a simple, easy-to-read book which can help people with the financial concepts they need to know.

To reach the younger market, Van Wyk made the book easier to understand than regular business books.

“The tools, mindset and the inspiration is in the book, but we need to spread the word,” he said.

The biggest lesson in the book is that dreams can become reality.Pretoria News

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