May 5, 2023
Hayden Bowles knew school wasn’t for him when a teacher told him he was “destined to flip burgers or live on a street corner” if he didn’t start taking his schoolwork seriously.
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But little did that teacher know, at just 16, Bowles was already working away on his e-commerce business in his parents’ basement, “starting to make just as much money as he was while sitting in his classroom.”
By the ripe old age of 22, Bowles had earned $7 million, bought a dream Lamborghini, built a real estate portfolio and “technically retired.”
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Now, he shares his steps to success with his YouTube and TikTok followers — with the hope of helping others make their millions too.
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How did Bowles make his millions?
Bowles started making money through buying items from eBay and reselling them on Amazon. It was a lot of trial and error at first — he admits to wasting over $150,000 on ads because he had no guidance — but he soon learned how to find the right products and how to resell them.
He dropped out of school that same year, he says, feeling “failed” by the system.
“I was not shown how to file taxes, how to buy a car, how to build credit, how to run a business, how to make money in any way,” he explained.
That’s when his schooling really started, he says. The young entrepreneur paid for courses, books, seminars, mentorships and in-person coaching to take a new e-commerce business, called Ecom Season, to the next level — and it worked.
“I had started to make a pretty substantial income from my business when I was 17 years old,” he shared on his YouTube channel, where he talks about how to make money and build wealth.
Within a few years, Ecom Season grew into a successful education, consulting and advertising platform. Notably, Bowles started selling two eCommerce courses, priced at $575 each — Hacking Shopify Dropshipping and Ecom Remastered 2.0 — to teach other young entrepreneurs how to make money online.
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By the age of 18, Bowles had earned enough to buy his dream car — a Lamborghini Huracán — in cash. He also used the profits from his business to invest in real estate and generate a lot more income.
By the age of 22, Bowles says he’d earned a cool $7 million from e-commerce and the profits from his real estate portfolio.
“I still work, I love to work but I am technically retired because of the money I've set aside from real estate. The money that pays me does support my lifestyle,” he said.
Two big keys for success
Bowles has shared many tips on social media to help other budding entrepreneurs make their millions.
He strongly believes that you should live on 20% or less of your income.
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“If you can do that, you’re going to be able to save and invest and double-down so aggressively,” he said.
But that target might seem impossible for some. If you make $70,000 after tax and live off 20% of that income, that only leaves you with $14,000 — which won’t go far at all.
“If you say: ‘There’s no way I can live on 20%,’ that doesn't mean the formula’s wrong; it means you don’t make enough money,” argued Bowles.
To counter that problem, Bowles says you should focus on your income above everything else — and stop trying to save a dollar here or there by making coffee at home instead of going to Starbucks.
“You need to make more money. There’s a lot of ways to do that,” he said, hinting that you could look for a new job that offers a higher salary and more work opportunities.
“The problem is, most people look for a side hustle outside of what they’re doing, when in reality, you can make more money picking up overtime or doing something inside your industry.”
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Bethan Moorcraft is a reporter for Moneywise with experience in news editing and business reporting across international markets.
