What were you doing when you were five years old? If you were playing in the sandbox or learning the first letters of the alphabet, then you're a lot like we were. But some five-year-olds just don't have time for that kind of thing. Ayan Qureshi is one of them.
Small kid, big success
Though the photo of Qureshi on the BBC shows him dressed for a day at the office (sans shoes), it's hard not to overlook the fact that he is, well, a six-year-old. Still, that didn't prevent him from passing Microsoft's Certified Professional test – which makes him the youngest licensed computer specialist in the world (to be clear, he was five when he passed the test and is now six).
While it probably doesn't hurt that Qureshi's dad is an IT guy, it's still pretty mind-blowing to imagine this little kid absorbing all the intricacies of computer network functionality – something even bigwig corporate friends of ours still can't seem to get the hang of. So how did this all take shape? Not surprisingly, it began with a little bit of parental nudging. When was three years old, his dad Asim introduced him to the wonderful world of computers, and soon discovered Ayan had a knack for the machines.
"I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he'd remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information," Asim said.
Since the interest really began to take hold, Asim would let Ayan tinker around with his old computers. By doing this, the little kid got an early look at what a motherboard was comprised of and learned about all the separate parts that go into making a computer function as a unified whole. This early training paid off in a major way. It's worth pointing out that the test Ayan took is one usually geared toward not just adults, but people who aspire to be professional computer technicians. But he took it, and he passed. Hearing about this incredible youngster got us thinking about other kids who accomplished crazy-advanced things. Here are a few of them:
- Mozart: Perhaps the classic example of musicianship realized at a young age. The great Wolfgang composed his first minuet at only five years old, though he didn't write his first symphony until age nine (can somebody say slacker?). Of course, his success didn't diminish with the years, and as he grew older he evolved into one of history's most influential artists. Now that's some childhood work that paid off big time.
- Kim Ung-Yong: Early on in his life, it was discovered that Kim had a 210 IQ – which is just about where you max out of the test. He harnessed his natural abilities to absorb as much as possible, and by the age of 8 years old he was offered a job at NASA. But however naturally advanced Kim was, he was still a young kid, and he said the toll of the job wore on him emotionally.
"At that time, I led my life like a machine ― I woke up, solved the daily assigned equation, ate, slept, and so forth. I really didn't know what I was doing, and I was lonely and had no friends," he said.
When he decided to abandon the career that he was supposedly suited for in exchange for a quiet life in Korea, he was held to task in the media for not living up to his potential. But as he pointed out, he lives a happy life now – which should be anyone's idea of success.
