From Immigrant to Food Stamps to Technology Billionaire [VIDEO]

We often hear about immigrants coming to America with nothing more than the shirt on their back, and in just a few years becoming successful business people. I attribute their success to the fact that they arrive with the attitude that they literally have nothing to lose. Such is the case of Jan (yawn) Koum who immigrated to the US with his mom from the Ukraine.

Koum was only sixteen at the time, and arrived with a few school supplies in Silicon Valley, California. He taught himself computers with used manuals from a book store. His mom got cancer, and they had to live off her disability and food stamps. Eventually he got a job at Yahoo where he made friends with a guy named Brian, and they became great friends. They left Yahoo together and created an amazing computer app called WhatsApp, and it caught the attention of Facebook who in turn bought the company for 19 billion dollars.

CNN has the story: