Hacking Success In Life, Beyond Brilliance [SN]

This is a Short Note from my LinkedIn update.

When I was in Federal University of Technology Owerri (Nigeria), I was a jacobian (people who read too much). I read hard because I needed to read more to do better. I knew I was not the smartest guy in class, but if I put more efforts I could come on top. There was an exam I prepared for straight 11 hours of study – Thermodynamics.

I understand one thing: life is not just about knowledge and being smart. It is more of the path you decide to take. A British whizkid Marcus Hutchin who “solved” the WannaCry malware was arrested in U.S. on the suspicion that he created another malware. He was hailed as a genius when he halted the spread of the WannaCry.

Marcus Hutchins, the young cybersecurity expert, who managed to halt the spread of the WannaCry ransomware’s first wave last week says he plans to donate  monetary reward offered to him to charity. Hutchins, was responsible for halting the inexorable march of WannaCry on Friday, when he followed clues from the malware’s code and registered a domain name the attackers were using as a kill switch.

Ever since, his identity has been outed by British media and has been inundated with communications from the media, the cybersecurity world and more. He’s now even been offered a $10,000 by HackerOne, a platform for cybersecurity professionals to report potential security flaws in exchange for bounty rewards. However, Hutchins says he doesn’t want to take the money, and no instead plans to donate the amount to charity. “I plan on holding a vote to decide which charities will get the majority of the money,” he wrote on Twitter.

Now, how can brilliant people decide to be stupid? You have the mind of Einstein and decide to write malware infecting the world. He could be a legend. Hutchin refuses to take the right path just as we see brilliant kids in our universities that simply will not wake up to attend lectures. They fail and drop out.

The most brilliant student I met in FUTO did not last a year. He was peerless. But he had a flaw: his path was wrong. He would be sleeping up to 11am when students went to classes at 2am to “colonize” seats for classes starting at 9am.  Do not waste your gifts.

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