Sam altman got into AI almost 10 years ago when it was more popular to work in large social media companies.
Which emerging industry should a young person work in, if they want billion dollar success in around 10 years?
I told somebody around 2009 that I was interested in AI and he thought I was an insane crackpot.
I think there is going to be a huge spend on technology related to decarbonization in the next ten years. Also advanced manufacturing technology will be important. The north star for that (at the risk of sounding grandiose) is space industrialization: if we are going to send 10,000 people to Mars, Ceres or some place that and expect them to survive they need to be able to manufacture just about everything. Even if that never happens, advanced manufacturing is needed on this planet and will create opportunities.
It might not be the path to billions but grad school in chemistry or adjacent areas of science and engineering would be a way to get in.
I think there will be some billion dollar games in the ten next years that will involve some intersection of technology, art and entertainment. I think of the company Type Moon from Japan that started out with very simple visual novels but developed a stable of characters and storytelling viewpoints that led to some rather good games like Fate/Extra and Fate/Extella and then the blockbuster mobile game Fate/Grand Order -- one of those "overnight success" stories that they'd worked on for more than 10 years.
There will be billion dollar games based on VR/AR and related technologies but my fear is that Mark Zuckerberg will try to destroy any competitor in this space out of spite.
I'm a member of a group who are organized under anarchist principles. We are as anti-capitalist as a business can be under capitalism. We're anti-hierarchy, meaning we have no bosses or lesser employees. We have no employees to begin with, because we believe people deserve the fruits of their own labor and wage-slavery is slavery, so all members of the group are equal owners. If/when we take another apprentice, they will immediately become an equal owner, we don't believe in the "we worked here longer so you deserve less of your own profits" crap, that's just an excuse capitalists use to steal from people. I say all this because this is how all business should be run. Capitalism is inherently parasitic, and you should try to avoid the worst parts of it: the capitalists.
We work as hard as the work requires, no more. We're humans. We need to sit down, drink water, have a snack, and talk about random crap once in a while. The parasitic capitalists treat people like robots. Workers are machinery to them, and our pay is maintenance. It's no coincidence most people barely scrape by paycheck-to-paycheck, that's literally "the cost of living" or as the capitalists see it, the cost of a machine. As a good non-capitalist business, there's no parasite aiming a metaphorical gun to our heads forcing us to do just the right song and dance so they graciously don't make us homeless.
I'm also a hobby sysadmin and programmer, trying to build my own home enterprise network (a.k.a. "homelab"). I'd like to use my skills to help people solve problems. I like crafting custom solutions to problems, and have a strong distaste for cookie-cutter things.
You cannot and will not attain billion dollar success without becoming a parsite who gets a free ride off of other people's labor. That's a lot of money, too much to make on your own. You should instead focus on maintaining a comfortable life without exploiting people. There's also the fact that these billionaire "successes" are only successes in a stupid frame-of-reference. In reality, the only result of their parasitism and greed is trillions of useless hunks of garbage ruining the planet for all future generations. We don't need all this crap, they do.
If you still want to do this, even after realizing how evil it is, well that's how you do it. That's how you get rich quick: be a parasite who gets a free ride off of other people's labor. Do everything you can to have employees and take as much of the fruits of their labor for yourself and your investor buddies who also get a free ride off of other people's labor. Then diversify your portfolio and get into landlording or other rent-seeking, so you're not stealing eggs from just one basket.
But if you don't want to be evil, I suggest the following: - Take a programming course (I suggest CS50x from Harvard, it's free and best-in-class) - Find a handyman or carpenter and offer to be their assistant for a week or a month or something (not for free, that's exploitation, you deserve to be paid). Learn to read a tape-measure. - Learn how to change your oil, wiper blades, etc. (just the basics for now)
Pay attention to the types of work you enjoy doing. Do you like physically building things? Do you like fixing broken things? Do you like daydreaming while you drive for 12 hours? Do you like solving more abstract idea-based problems? Do you enjoy interacting with people as part of your work? Do you enjoy working as part of a team?
That's just an idea, but I think it would help to experience a few different types of jobs before you pick one. You might find yourself a career, or you might just end up with a few extra skills.
Again, I think billionaire status is basically unattainable ethically, but if you want to achieve "success" in general, just generally avoid being a cog in the machine. Do something that allows you to have creative input and actually do something useful. Don't be a parasite, and don't pump more useless garbage into the world.
I hope that's been helpful. I wish you the best of luck!