A 30-year old self-made billionaire has an advice for you

Other than a regular job, it is always better to have a venture on the side to climb the rather long ladder of success faster. Co-founder and the CEO of Afterpay, Nick Molnar, who is Australia's youngest self-made billionaire, made his fortune by following that "2 is better than 1" rule.

Molnar, with a net worth of $2 billion, is Australia's youngest self-made billionaire. The 30 years old entrepreneur was shot into fame and fortune as the co-founder and co-CEO of Afterpay, a deferred payments platform that allows users to stagger the cost of their purchases over regular, interest-free instalments.

Afterpay has surged under a coronavirus-induced shift to e-commerce and growing demand for digital payments — supercharging the company's stock price 1,300% and catapulting its co-founders to billionaire status.

However, it might not have been possible without the advice from Molnar's old boss, who advised the University of Sydney graduate investment analyst to go full time with his side-venture of selling jewelry.

In a recent interview with CNBC's Make It, Nick Molnar narrated his journey into entrepreneurship and passed on the advice for other aspiring young entrepreneurs.

Pushed by his boss

In 2012, a commerce graduate from the University of Sydney, Molnar was working as an investment analyst under Mark Carnegie, founding partner of Australian private equity firm MH Carnegie & Co.

Already a driven entrepreneur, Molnar had sold jewelry on eBay from his bedroom while at university. But when he wanted to expand the business and launch his own jewelry website, Carnegie was the one to give him the push.

I don't know why you're working here, you need to go do this full time.

"It took the guy that was running the fund, a gentleman named Mark Carnegie, to turn around and say 'I don't know why you're working here, you need to go do this full time," Molnar recalled.

Carnegie sweetened the deal by offering to hold Molnar's job for 12 months so he could return if the venture didn't work out.

"He knew I was never going to take (it) up, but it gave me the confidence to have a go," Molnar said, who months later, launched Ice Online.

"He was the one that pushed me to do it."

Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs

The website that Nick Molnar created remains active to this day. But it was with his next venture, Afterpay, which launched less than two years later, that Molnar found real success.

"It's great to have a side hustle. But I think there's expectations of how far you can take a side hustle," Molnar said while passing on the advice.

"I always thought coming out of university I had to get a job, not 'I can create my own way.' And I just think it deserves the time that's required to get to where you need to," he added.

"When you rip the band-aid off and you move beyond 'I need a corporate job' to 'I can create my own income,' it's amazing the growth you can see from a company," Molnar concluded.