Self-Taught iPhone Application Developer Goes to #1

Does this sound like a get-rich-quick scheme? YOU can teach yourself how to program and cash-in on the Apple iPhone application revolution and make up to $600,000 in ONE MONTH!

Read on and decide for yourself. It is, without question, an example of tenacity in working through life’s little speed bumps.

Ethan Nicholas was an engineer at Sun Microsystems. Great job? Yes. But, as often happens, hard times befell his family to the extent that he was barely getting by. He also had a 1-year-old son to provide for. That’s when he took matters into his own hands.

After his shift ended each day at Sun, he would begin working on developing the iPhone application (app) bouncing around in his head: iShoot, a tank artillery game. In the technology business, but with no knowledge of how to code and program an iPhone application, and without the money to buy books and programs from which to learn, he taught himself from free information found on the Internet. After his shift, he’d spend another eight hours, often with his pre-toddler in his lap, learning, coding, and dreaming.

In October 2008, his game launched, but to slow sales. He then coded a free version of the game, advertised the $3 full version inside the free program and the rest is history.

Users downloaded over 2-million copies of the free version, which converted to 320,000 sales of the full version. His game quickly rose to the Number 1 position, where it remained for nearly a month. Presently, it sits at #6.

Ok, 320,000 times $3 equals $960,000! ($600,000 coming this past January, alone).

Nicholas’ story is certainly an extraordinary one and not something that happens every day, but it provides some insight into the roads we can take when facing financial adversity. We can reach within ourselves, pull out all that is marketable, and shape it into something valuable, or, we can look to get-rich-quick schemes, fall for everything that promises the sun and moon, and rely on others to do everything for us.

Ethan Nicholas seems to have taken the first road. The only road worth taking. Get-rich-quick scheme? Not at all.

Almost forgot. He quit his job at Sun Microsystems.

Source: Wired Blog Network, "Coder’s Half-Million-Dollar Baby Proves iPhone Gold Rush Is Still On", by Brian X. Chen, February 12, 2009.