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Home / Business

How Melbourne university dropout Nick Bell went from broke to $184m rich-lister

By Alexis Carey
news.com.au·
30 Oct, 2018 12:02 AM3 mins to read

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Former university dropout Nick Bell is now the 19th richest young person in Australia. Photo / Facebook

Former university dropout Nick Bell is now the 19th richest young person in Australia. Photo / Facebook

Melbourne man Nick Bell dropped out of his university business course after just six weeks.

At age 24, he launched a skincare company — but that too failed.

Then, in 2008 and with just A$400 ($432.90) left in his bank account, Mr Bell turned his sights on to a new venture, founding digital marketing agency WME.

It was a decision which would make him a multi-millionaire.

Today, Bell has a staggering A$170 million ($183.9m) net worth and has just been named as the 19th richest young person in Australia by the 2018 Australian Financial Review Young Rich list.

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The 38-year-old made a cool A$39m last year after selling the Australian branch of WME to ASX listed company Melbourne IT.

He planned to take a six-month sabbatical after the sale, but he grew bored just one month into his break.

He then started work on building up WME across Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai and Thailand, and also owns a stake in various companies including Appscore, Hosting Australia and SiteGuard.

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Bell, who graduated from high school with a university entrance score of just 57/100, has previously spoken out about the fact that university isn't the only path to success.

"In school it's ingrained in you to study hard, get a good score, go to university, work hard for three years and then get a corporate job, have two kids and settle down," he told HuffPost in 2015.

"I got into business marketing at VuT (Victoria University of Technology) even though my entry score was 57 — absolutely terrible — and I knew I wasn't going to do too well.

"I was sitting in a micro-economics class and after six weeks I thought, this isn't for me. So I jumped in the car and drove off and never looked back."

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He said it was important for young people to understand there was more to life than the HSC and university.

"I know kids are stressing about the end of school or the HSC score and thinking if they don't get into university then life's over, it's not the case," he told the publication.

"There are so many opportunities out there that people don't realise."

Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar took out the equal first and second place on the newly-released Young Rich list with their combined fortune of A$14.2 billion.

Third place went to property developer Tim Gurner — the man who famously said millennials couldn't afford to buy houses thanks to their smashed avo and coffee addiction — with a net worth of A$631m.

Meanwhile, Ori Allon, who built his A$539m wealth in technology and property, scored fourth place in the Young Rich list, while equal fifth and sixth went to fitness entrepreneur Kayla Itsines and her fiance Tobi Pearce.

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Seventh place went to Owen Kerr, with A$460m to his name thanks to his stake in foreign exchange Brokerage Company Pepperstone.

Husband-and-wife duo Collis and Cyan Ta'eed, who founded online graphic marketplace Envato, are jointly worth A$428m, earning them the eighth and ninth places, while farming and finance capital investor Peter Greensill sits in 10th place with A$412m in the bank.

The Young Rich List, now in its 15th year, tracks the wealth of the richest self-made Aussies aged under 40.

The 100 rich-listers featured this year have a staggering combined wealth of A$23.5b — a huge increase on A$13.2b last year.

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