You have probably heard of people who hit the jackpot; I am one of those people.  I tell you this: Making money, that’s the easy part. It’s the burden that comes after, for which you are never prepared.

I am Tej Singh. A billionaire at age 28, I almost died when I hit my jackpot.

I’ve always been an entrepreneur. By age 8, I ran lemonade stands in my Schaumburg, Illinois neighborhood and sold my successful taco truck business before I turned 18. I put myself through college to study computer science and launched my own tech firm in San Jose, California by the time I was 22. That venture failed, and so did the next one.  Then, on July 20, in the year 2025, lady luck smiled.

A Russian hacker group took over the Internet on that day. Everything; the stock market, banks, utilities, universities and government websites; crashed and complete mayhem ensued. Just as I hoped, only a few servers of the company Factorial Inc., repulsed the attack. They were based in Reykjavik, Ekurhuleni, Palo Alto, Essen and Luxembourg. We chose the cities just on a whim; the first letters of the cities spelled out R-E-P-E-L.  Only the REPEL servers survived the hackers. We saved the world’s richest company that day. Rumors spread overnight about the competing bids for my company.

It’s nice to be a hot firm in Silicon Valley. My phone rang nonstop: Investors and reporters, wanting face-to-face meetings with me. It’s quite an ego trip; Air smells sweeter, everything appears more colorful. The euphoria lasted for 3 days. That’s when the other calls started; late at night, always untraceable and very unpleasant.

These were the same people who broke into our labs earlier. We had installed cameras all over the place after the first break-in.  The footage for the second break-in showed a couple of dark SUVs driving around in the parking lot at 2am. Five hooded figures expertly cut open a hole in the window. Once inside, they spread out, picking laptops of key technical people in the team. Before leaving, one of them spray-painted Chinese symbols on my office door. A tech later told me with a worried look on her face, “Tej! It says they will be back for more!”

One of the late night callers said, “We will triple any offer you get. Think carefully before you make any decisions. “

The next one was Russian, and he warned me, “There are a lot of bad apples out there. Who knows how these people might take it, if you decided to reject their offer…” and hung up.

When my team heard about the threats, they forced me to hire a security detail. But having a couple of burly ex-boxer bodyguards next to me did not help me feel secure.

Factorial came through with a buyout package unheard of in recent memory-75 billion dollars, and I got 50%. I signed away my company that Monday. There was a lull in those ominous phone calls when news broke and I foolishly let my guard down.

It was the eve of Thanksgiving. I had given the day off to my guards. After a great party at Chez Panisse in Berkeley and bar hopping afterward, I caught the new BART midnight train back home to East Palo Alto. There were only a couple of passengers in the train car. I figured they were probably drunk too. I shivered as I got off the train at 1am. A freezing wind from the bay blew my hat off and I bent to pick it up. I heard a dull thud just then. I figured someone had closed a car door and then heard another thud. A hole popped open on the wall of a booth nearby. I wasn’t too drunk to realize someone was shooting at me from afar. My heart pounded as I crouched low, and ran.

I am a good runner even with a few drinks in me, and I ran at an incredible pace that night. I ran across traffic to reach the south end of Bay road, and quickly lost the 3 men who were after me. I love this little town- it’s always busy with people out and about on the streets, no matter the hour.

Robbie Bischoff, my hermit of a house-mate, waited at the house, his Ford Explorer idling. He had all the money he would ever need, but he still drove that 40-year old rust-bucket. I had called to tell him that someone was after me.

All he asked when I jumped into the truck was, “Where to? The bunker?”

“Yes. To the bunker.” I replied. 

I disappeared from the public eye just like that.