Business ideas and Infosec

exploit

Hello. Loving the forum. I scrambled around trying to register because I really want to be around knowledgeable people.

Onto my questions - I'm a career changer and I have been reading lots of hacking books and in particular the Kevin Mitnick books.

One of my main goals in the near future is to have my own business and to achieve millionaire status. I understand that this is going to be hard, and I have been working towards this goal for a few years now. The turning point for me now is trying to find out if my goals are inline with my interests, or if I would be able to reach my goals in the Infosec arena.

Regardless of if I work in Infosec or not, It holds my ineterest and I will keep it as a hobby. I like to learn about it, basically.

So, are there any people in the Infosec world who have become rich/millioanaires through the work they do/consulting companies they operate?

Please do not misunderstand my questions as being all about the money or that it is my sole motivation. I want to do what I enjoy and like, but I also have to try and work that into my plan as well.

I hope I have made sense and not offended anyone.

Thankyou.

GAngel

What's your definition of a millionaire? Someone with a million dollars in the bank is usually a millionaire multiple times overs. You can be a millionaire by network or be a non millionaire who earns like a millionaire but spends just as fast.

It doesn't matter what you do to make your money as long as it's legal. There are probably the same amount % wise of security people who are millionaires as in most other fields. The easiest and hardest way to make money is through your own business regardless of the field you choose. Quite frankly unless you're in the C suite or stay single for a longtime the odds of you being "rich" working for a company is against you.

If you are looking soley at the money aspect of it this would not be the field I'd choose to own a business in. It's far to competitive and margins too low for my liking personally.

JDMurray

Most of the millionaires in InfoSec are all business people. They got their millions through acquiring stock options, patents, consulting contracts, and other business assets. I am, of course, speaking of "white hat" InfoSec. There are millionaire made by the "black hat" world of InfoSec too.

exploit

GAngel wrote: »

What's your definition of a millionaire? Someone with a million dollars in the bank is usually a millionaire multiple times overs. You can be a millionaire by network or be a non millionaire who earns like a millionaire but spends just as fast..

I probably wasn't very clear before when I said millionaire. I meant 5+ million in liquidity/easily accessible funds. So quite rich

GAngel wrote: »

It doesn't matter what you do to make your money as long as it's legal. There are probably the same amount % wise of security people who are millionaires as in most other fields. The easiest and hardest way to make money is through your own business regardless of the field you choose. Quite frankly unless you're in the C suite or stay single for a longtime the odds of you being "rich" working for a company is against you..

The owning a business strategy is something that became clear to me quite early on. That is defitinitely my aim.

GAngel wrote: »

If you are looking soley at the money aspect of it this would not be the field I'd choose to own a business in. It's far to competitive and margins too low for my liking personally.

Interesting. If you had to choose a field that was better, which would you choose? (out of interest).

exploit

JDMurray wrote: »

Most of the millionaires in InfoSec are all business people. They got their millions through acquiring stock options, patents, consulting contracts, and other business assets. I am, of course, speaking of "white hat" InfoSec. There are millionaire made by the "black hat" world of InfoSec too.

I'm trying to learn as much as I can about the field, but as I'm finding out there are only so many hours I can dedicate to this! Also, my eyes aren't what they used to be .

JDMurray

I think most of the get-rich-quick schemes involve stock trading or real estate and not high-tech projects. Those avenues might get you to your goal faster than tech will.

GAngel

5+ million cash...

That's easy. You'll need one hell of an idea to do that short term. It takes a huge amount of time and effort to grow a small business into a profitable medium sized one. That's why most small business owners sell on.