There’s an old Austrian proverb – “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

While most people live a pretty standard life, without stepping outside the box, there’s one 17-year-old Austrian who wanted something more.

At the age of 15, Moritz Berkovec, an Austrian high school student, took the plunge and launched his first business. Fast-forward 2 years later, and he’s built a successful 6-figure e-commerce empire… all from his bedroom.

Now, he’s bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue through his e-commerce business while still attending high school.

So how did he do it?

Well, Moritz says it wasn’t easy by any means. “When I was 15, I started a few businesses and failed pretty bad. I made close to 0 sales and had invested thousands of dollars. My teachers never supported my business goals. But that didn’t bother me. I just kept working towards my dreams.”

While all of his friends spend their days playing sports or video games after school, for Moritz, he chose early on to swim upstream and pursue success in the business world.

That motivated him even more to keep working hard. On a normal day, he comes from school and works on his e-commerce business until at least midnight.

“I always preferred to have a rather small circle, I’m always there for the people who have always been there for me and built me up and I’m always trying to give back. I don’t know how to explain it but since I was a little kid I always had that hustle mentality. I always wanted to give everything I had to whatever I was working on.

“The early failures despite I experienced despite the time I dedicated to my stores didn’t get me down. I realized this investment I was putting in with my time and money had a much greater value than creating sales right away. I learned so much from my failed stores and kept on improving them.”

“After 2 years of investing thousands of dollars and countless hours working on e-commerce stores, something finally clicked and I finally created an e-commerce shop that converted extremely well.”

“In the first two weeks of building up the store, I made my first $15,000 in revenue and was featured on a lot of big Instagram pages.”

When asked what made him so successful early on with e-commerce, Moritz replied, “The most important thing was that I learned from every failed store. I made sure to find out why something didn’t work as it should and improved stores from store to store.”

But that wasn’t the only thing. He attributes much of his success to his family and his very supportive girlfriend.

“However, without the help of my parents, I wouldn’t be where I am at this point. My family has always been a great support. Especially my dad. He’s always been like a mentor to me, always giving his best to support me. He has never hesitated to invest in me and my dream to become a successful entrepreneur.”

“I learned a lot from him early on. He really taught me the financial side of my business. You know, the numbers, accounting, and cash flow.”

However, Moritz attributes most of his success in building a successful e-commerce business to mastering online marketing.

“When I got my first smartphone, I was obsessed with watching YouTube videos. I still love watching videos today and most of the things I taught myself when it comes to building an e-commerce store were with simple YouTube tutorials, specifically on how to create profitable ad sets.”

“The critical part for me wasn’t just watching the videos. I began applying what I was learning and over time tweaked and made adjustments specifically for my business.”

“I was always pretty good at building websites. However, it was really hard to understand the complicated marketing algorithms, especially with Facebook ads.”

“I first started creating ads on Facebook and Instagram with a daily budget of $25 and scaled it from time to time.”

“Then I started to contact big Instagram meme pages to get featured on their sites. However, the first month I was only breaking even. I invested nearly $10,000 USD before I finally had a perfectly running ad set. But then one day, it felt like everything finally came together. Something just clicked.”

“In the first few months of launching my newest e-commerce site, I’ve generated over 6 figures in sales and it continues rising.”

When asked how he manages to juggle school and his e-commerce business, Moritz responded, “Sometimes my schoolwork suffers. And to be honest, I only do as much as I have to do for school to pass the year.”

“However, when it comes to my e-commerce business, I am a completely different person. I’m always working to improve my business… working away until about 1:00 AM, 365 days of the year to provide the best experience for my customers.”

Looking back, Moritz remembers, “I was always into making money even at an early age. I always searched for ways to make money, and I experimented with a lot of different business ideas. Eventually, when I stumbled upon e-commerce, I saw it as the perfect path.”

When asked if he always knew he’d be successful growing up, Moritz replied, “It might sound a bit odd but I always somehow had the self-confidence to know I’d be successful one day. However, I realized the key to success is to actually take action on your dreams. You can’t just wait for them to come to you.”

“I always had the mindset to hustle. Even though I grew up with a wealthy family, I always wanted to make my own money. I never stop trying to improve my business. It’s funny, I actually can’t relax when I know something still has to be done for my e-commerce business, which is probably part of the reason for my early success.”

Looking towards the future, Moritz says, “My current plan is to keep on expanding my business after I graduate from high school… and to build more successful e-commerce businesses. However, for now, going to school and building up my current business is my focus.”

Regarding the current world of e-commerce, Moritz commented optimistically, “Today, e-commerce is stronger than ever before. Especially in the current lockdown situation. It goes to show how strong and important it has gotten in the past 10 years.”

When asked if he has any advice for young people wanting to start an online business, Moritz responded, “Don’t quit after you fail once. Most importantly, learn from the mistakes you’ve made. It’s almost impossible to start a successful e-commerce store or brand from scratch.”