This story is part of CNBC Make It’s The Moment series, where highly successful people reveal the critical moment that changed the trajectory of their lives and careers, discussing what drove them to make the leap into the unknown.

Jay Chaudhry never thought he’d run a business, amass a fortune or help popularize an entire industry. Not growing up in rural India, not upon moving to the U.S. in 1980 to study engineering and marketing, not even after landing jobs at tech giants IBM and Unisys.

“I have no background of entrepreneurship in my family of small-scale farmers. So if you asked me, ‘Did I ever think about becoming an entrepreneur in my childhood [or] early years of my career?’ Not really,” Chaudhry, the billionaire founder and CEO of cloud security company Zscaler, tells CNBC Make It.

It took Silicon Valley’s dot-com boom — the wild success stories of tech startups like Netscape — to get Chaudhry thinking in 1996, “Why shouldn’t I start a company?” He made the rash decision to quit his job as an executive at Atlanta-based tech company IQ Software, and his wife Jyoti quit her job as a systems analyst at telecommunications giant BellSouth.

Together, they plunged their life savings — roughly $500,000 — into SecureIT, a cybersecurity software startup they co-founded in 1997. At the time, “maybe less than 5% of Fortune 500 companies had firewalls,” Chaudhry says. “Within 18 months, we had deployed firewalls in about 50% of [the] Fortune 500.”

His timing was perfect: In 1998, Chaudhry sold SecureIT to VeriSign in an all-stock deal worth nearly $70 million. Over the ensuing decade, the husband-and-wife duo founded two more cybersecurity companies and an e-commerce business, each of which got acquired.

By 2007, they were already wealthy entrepreneurs, and Chaudhry — who gets “bored” without something to work on — decided it was time to launch “one big company and put 200% focus on that,” he says.

That company was Zscaler, which aimed to help companies transition away from outdated firewalls and into the cloud era. The couple invested $50 million of their own money, says Chaudhry. Today, it brings in $1.6 billion in annual revenue and has a market value of roughly $30 billion.

Chaudhry’s own net worth is estimated at $11.5 billion by Forbes.

Here, Chaudhry talks about putting his family’s savings on the line to follow his gut, how his upbringing influenced his relationship with money and the advice he’d give someone who wants to quit their job to start a business.

CNBC Make It: What prompted you to stake your entire life’s savings on a startup idea — in an industry that didn’t really exist yet?

Chaudhry: This thing happened because I love to read and I love technology.

In 1996, Netscape had just launched and gone public, and I was fascinated by it. I said, “If [Netscape co-founder] Marc Andreessen could start a company — he was a young guy [right] out of college — why shouldn’t I start a company?”

My wife and I talked a few times, and the more we thought about it, the more conviction we got around it: [Netscape’s web browser] is the way to access information, and it should become popular. But if every company is connected to the internet, that means there will be security risks.

That was my simple thinking. There was no IDC or Gartner study about the market size. It was largely based on what the gut told us.

A gut feeling is one thing. Betting every dollar to your name is another.

It started out with us saying, “Let’s go get venture capital funding.” I had no experience raising funds, and I realized soon that it wasn’t that easy. This was [1996], Atlanta was not a VC mecca and we kept hearing, “Hey, you don’t have any experience.”

We were disappointed, but our conviction was building, which led to me saying, “Why don’t we put our life-savings on the line?”

I didn’t know anything. So, I really didn’t know how big the risk was. I couldn’t quantify it.

How did you make peace with that risk?

After talking back and forth, we asked each other, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” The company could shut down, we’d lose all of our savings.

The next question was, “Can we find jobs?” There was lots of confidence that we could.

I never had money in my early childhood, so there was never a notion that I must buy A and B and C. Our lifestyle was pretty simple. Our house in Alpharetta, Georgia, was $200,000 — a nice, typical middle-class house at that time — and we didn’t have any fancy cars or fancy payments.

Our only child at that time was going to a public school. There wasn’t a lot of overhead. We said, “Let’s take a chance.”

When a bet pays off, does that success make you more confident to take on bigger risks? Were any of your other ventures as risky as that first one?

The [financial] risk of SecureIT was, like, 1,000 times more than the risk of Zscaler. The amount I invested in Zscaler was a small fraction of my net worth.

But Zscaler was much harder. I put more money in it than all the others combined. I took bigger bets. I hired people more quickly to solve some very hard problems. I wanted to do something big, something lasting.

We were trying to solve a problem that was futuristic. Will it be successful or not? Will the market take off or not? That was all unknown.

So if you asked me the chances of success of Zscaler, there was a much higher risk. Because, with SecureIT, it was fairly obvious that as you connect to the internet, you need firewalls.

What’s your best advice for someone who’s thinking about quitting their job to start their own business?

First, build conviction by learning more about what you want to do. Don’t just do some of the cursory work.

Second, start by putting in your own money. That actually is part of testing your conviction. If you really have conviction, you’ll take a chance on yourself. That also means you’ve done some serious homework, you’re ready, you’re committed.

You can also make decisions the way you want to make decisions. If Zscaler was largely owned by VCs, they probably could have shut it down. It took us a few years to really start getting traction in the market, and VCs can write you off and move on. They say, “It’s one of my 20 investments.”

When you put in your own money, this is the only business you have.

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You have to earn more than $1 million annually to be among the top 1% of earners in the richest U.S. states and Washington, D.C., a new GOBankingRates study reveals.

In D.C., you’re in the top 1% if you make $1,250,029 or more — the highest threshold in the U.S. That’s followed by five states where you also need to come in over the $1 million mark to be a top earner: Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Washington and New Jersey.

The 1% thresholds are based on individual tax return data processed by the Internal Revenue Service in 2022, which has been adjusted by GOBankingRates to reflect 2024 dollar values. Here’s a look at where the 1% earn the most, based on that metric:

1. Washington, D.C.: $1,250,029
2. Connecticut: $1,192,947
3. Massachusetts: $1,152,992
4. California: $1,072,248
5. Washington: $1,024,599
6. New Jersey: $1,010,101
7. New York: $999,747
8. Colorado: $896,273
9. Florida: $882,302
10. Wyoming $872,896

One reason that Washington, D.C. has a higher threshold compared with states like California and New York is that it has a smaller population with a larger concentration of high-income earners. Many of the highest paid D.C. professionals are in the government sector, which includes senior officials, lobbyists and lawyers.

Connecticut also has a smaller population compared with most states. The state’s largest industry is financial services, and it is home to wealthy hedge funds and investment firms that tend to pay high salaries.

Massachusetts ranks third, largely due to an array of lucrative industries with high-paying specialized jobs, including financial services, education, technology and health care.

In contrast, West Virginia has the lowest income threshold for the top 1% of earners, starting at $435,302. Nationwide, the 1% income threshold is a median of $707,296.

Below are the thresholds for each state, in alphabetical order:

• Alabama: $577,017
• Alaska: $642,707
• Arizona: $713,264
• Arkansas: $550,469
• California: $1,072,248
• Colorado: $896,273
• Connecticut: $1,192,947
• Delaware: $640,330
• Florida: $882,302
• Georgia: $725,284
• Hawaii: $631,383
• Idaho: $728,859
• Illinois: $811,004
• Indiana: $572,403
• Iowa: $591,921
• Kansas: $674,225
• Kentucky: $532,013
• Louisiana: $608,143
• Maine: $609,173
• Maryland: $767,688
• Massachusetts: $1,152,992
• Michigan: $625,158
• Minnesota: $755,880
• Mississippi: $456,309
• Missouri: $610,837
• Montana: $741,182
• Nebraska: $651,641
• Nevada: $804,627
• New Hampshire: $839,742
• New Jersey: $1,010,101
• New Mexico: $493,013
• New York: $999,747
• North Carolina: $688,506
• North Dakota: $708,284
• Ohio: $601,685
• Oklahoma: $559,981
• Oregon: $707,296
• Pennsylvania: $720,778
• Rhode Island: $673,902
• South Carolina: $632,805
• South Dakota: $752,849
• Tennessee: $702,934
• Texas: $789,003
• Utah: $811,929
• Vermont: $645,255
• Virginia: $787,471
• Washington: $1,024,599
• Washington, D.C.: $1,250,029
• West Virginia: $435,302
• Wisconsin: $631,993
• Wyoming: $872,896

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Job hunters know their time is limited: You have to be selective about which roles you apply to. But it’s not always easy to tell if you’re using your time wisely. Sometimes, an employer that posts a public job listing may not be interested in outside talent for their opening.

For example, some government agencies and contractors are required by law to post a position externally, even if they have an internal candidate in mind, experts tell CNBC Make It. Generally, businesses are free to post a “phantom” job publicly, even if only to appear like they’re casting a wide net, says employment attorney Tom Spiggle.

So long as a company isn’t violating laws against discrimination, that practice “wouldn’t be improper, even though it’s a little bit slimy,” he says.

It’s likely not a common practice, according to TopResume career expert Amanda Augustine, but it’s also hard to know for sure.

“The unfortunate part is that they’re legitimate roles. There’s nothing about them that would ever indicate otherwise,” Augustine says.

But, she adds, it only takes a bit of networking to get more information about whether a job is really open to external applicants — or at the very least, to make your job search more efficient. Here’s how.

Ask a current employee at the company you’re applying to for an informational interview, Augustine advises. Let them know you’re hoping to learn more about their role and the organization, she says.

Make it a low-commitment meeting for the other person, so they’re more likely to say yes: Ask for 10 minutes of their time over a video or phone call.

It’s more effective to talk to someone you know at the company rather than cold contacting a random employee, Augustine says. Even if the person you know is in a completely different department from that of the posted job, they can dig around for information on your behalf or introduce you to someone else at the company who may know more.

If you don’t know anyone personally, look for a staffer with some degree of connection to you — perhaps a friend of a friend, someone who used to work with your colleague or an alum of your alma mater, Augustine recommends.

If no one fits that bill, target people in the department you’re interested in or who perform a similar function to the open role, she says.

During the call, pose a series of questions that lead to your specific concern about the opportunity’s availability. You can inquire pointedly, yet delicately, about the hiring team’s progress so far, Augustine says, like whether they’re already interviewing people and eyeing any internal or external candidates, or why they’re filling the role.

“I don’t necessarily recommend going out and saying, ‘Hey, do you know if this is only available to internal candidates?’” she says. “But you can definitely go in and say, ‘Do you know how far along they are in the interview process?’ Or, ‘Are they close to having a candidate already? I want to know, do you think it’s worth my time to apply for this opportunity?’”

You could also ask whether internal candidates tend to be preferred or whether jobs are opened to existing employees first before being opened up to the public, Augustine says. If roles typically aren’t posted externally at first, it may signal that the company has yet to find the right candidate and could consider you.

Ultimately, how bluntly you choose to probe partly depends on your personal comfort level and your relationship with the person you’re talking to, Augustine says.

If you’re more familiar with the individual, you can be more direct with your questioning, she says. But with someone you don’t know as well, she advocates for erring on the side of caution and professionalism with your phrasing. 

It’s possible that the person you speak to has little if any knowledge of the job you’re after. That doesn’t mean your conversation is for naught, though — far from it, Augustine says. 

“These informational interviews are always valuable because a 10-minute conversation could save you a lot of application time,” she says.

The chat provides an opportunity to get “insider information” about the company’s culture, not just one position’s hiring process, Augustine says. All of that information can help you decide whether you want to apply in the first place, as well as how to apply, including how to customize your resume or cover letter successfully.

The person you consult may also be willing to provide you a referral for the posting or pass along your materials to the hiring manager, presenting a chance to skip ahead in the recruiting process, she says.

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Usually, after a financial crisis, people spend less money and fewer new businesses launch.

The opposite was true last year, in the Covid-19 pandemic’s wake. Costs of living and inflation remained high, credit card debt in the U.S. increased and Americans’ savings dwindled — yet consumer spending jumped noticeably, and more businesses filed for creation than in pre-Covid 2019.

Welcome to the age of the side hustle, where Americans are increasingly devoted to finding extra money to spend. More than a third of U.S adults — and nearly half of millennials and Gen Z — now have a second stream of income, according to a survey published Wednesday by financial services company Bankrate.

“Overall, it comes down to, ’I want to spend more, so I need to earn more,” Kayla Bruun, a senior economist at business intelligence firm Morning Consult, tells CNBC Make It.

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The side hustle boom is happening across every age group, income level and industry in America, data shows. And it’s unlikely to slow down anytime soon: Younger generations are especially comfortable juggling multiple income streams to make a living, no matter the state of the economy, experts say.

Here’s why so many people have side hustles right now, and why economists say they’re probably here to stay.

The median U.S. side hustle earns $250 per month, says Ted Rossman, a Bankrate senior industry analyst. For roughly half of Americans with side hustles, the extra money isn’t for fun: It’s a necessity, driven by financial uncertainty.

Forty-five percent of Americans with side hustles use them to pay off debt and regular living expenses, Bankrate found last year. $250 per month is “by no means enough to live on, [but] it’s a nice amount of money,” Rossman says. “This is a great tactic for getting out of credit card debt or saving for the down payment on a home or a wedding.”

Despite rising wages and job growth, larger living expenses still feel out of reach for some Americans. Student loan and credit card debt are each over $1 trillion, and many 28- to 43-year-olds are struggle with rising costs of housing and childcare — two areas of the economy that haven’t cooled since the pandemic.

Millennials especially are “on the hook for a lot of expenses,” Bruun says.

Shonnita Leslie, a 40-year-old program manager at a university in Texas, started working for DoorDash to pay down her six-figure student loan debt in 2018. She made $72,000 over five years on DoorDash, whittling her debt down to $18,000, and now maintains the side hustle because she feels increasingly comfortable with multiple streams of income, she told Make It earlier this year.

For older millennials like Leslie, who were in their mid-20s during the Great Recession, a second income stream is a potential safety net. The same is increasingly true for younger millennials and Gen Zers now living through a prolonged period of high inflation for the first time as adults.

“People are telling us they’re side hustling because they have to, not because they want to,” says Rossman. “It’s become a bit of a treading-water situation … I wish more people were getting ahead, pursuing that passion project or maybe saving and investing more.”

Some of those economic conditions could improve as the country’s post-Covid recovery continues. But even people with healthy incomes have side hustles right now: Americans with household incomes of more than $100,000 are actually the most likely to seek extra cash outside of work, according to Bankrate’s 2023 report.

For those people, $250 per month isn’t necessarily a life-changing amount. But it’s certainly enough to fund vacations, concerts or date nights — the kinds of simple leisure activities Americans historically fund with their full-time paychecks.

Indeed, 52% of Americans with side hustles use their extra income for discretionary spending or padding their savings, Bankrate found last year. Some of them may be economic victims of “lifestyle creep,” wherein the more money you make, the more you’re tempted to spend.

“Some of it could be keeping up with the Joneses kind of thing,” Rossman notes.

But on the whole, it’s a sign that at least some Americans have identified the side hustle as a way to fund — or upgrade — their leisure experiences. Five months of the median U.S. side hustle could pay for a $1,088 ticket to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, for example.

“Our research really finds it’s related to this financial desire,” says Gusto economist Nich Tremper. “Their paycheck isn’t going as far as they expected.”

Americans who don’t need side hustles to pay the bills, but have them anyway, are indicators that the trend is here to stay, economists say. Almost anyone can create a Fiverr, TaskRabbit or Etsy account, leading a growing number of people to ask: If you can make extra money on the side, and you’re willing to spend time and effort to do so, why wouldn’t you?

“It’s easier than ever to make money in your spare time delivering packages, selling crafts, taking surveys, being an online personal assistant, graphic designer, etc.,” says Rossman, predicting that “side hustles will get even more popular over time.”

Tremper agrees, noting that the spread of hybrid and remote jobs gives people more time to build their side hustles. Each gig is a self-guided opportunity for creative and professional development, he says: “You don’t have a boss telling you what to do.”

Of course, time and energy aren’t infinite. A second job means more working hours and less time available for sleep, hobbies or maintaining relationships. Side hustles may be here to stay, but no individual gig is guaranteed a long shelf-life.

“The work ethic should be commended, but I do worry about the burnout risk and the lack of a safety net for full-time freelancers [and] gig workers,” Rossman says. “It’s mostly a warning sign that one job is not enough anymore.”

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You don’t need a bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting to have a lucrative career in banking, according to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. 

Speaking to LinkedIn, the Wall Street veteran reiterated his long-held view that skills are more valuable than education when finding the right candidate.

“I don’t think necessarily because you go to an Ivy League school or have great grades it means you’re going to be a great worker or great person,” Dimon, 68, said on LinkedIn’s “This is Working” video series last week.

Skills are “far more important” than having a college degree for many jobs, he added. “If you look at skills of people, it is amazing how skilled people are in something, but it didn’t show up in their resume.”

Dimon said JP Morgan Chase has eliminated degree requirements for most jobs at the bank and pivoted toward more skills-based hiring. 

About 80% of JP Morgan Chase’s current roles for “experienced hires,” or candidates with full-time work experience, don’t require a college degree, a company spokesperson confirmed to Fortune.

For context, 62% of Americans don’t have a college degree, according to the latest Census data. That means degree requirements can lock out millions of job seekers with alternative qualifications from high-paying opportunities.

The growing trend to remove degree requirements from job postings gained momentum during the “great resignation” when job quits and openings hit record highs. As companies were desperate to fill their vacancies, they re-vamped their recruiting processes and expanded their talent pools. 

A recent survey by ZipRecruiter which polled over 2,000 U.S. employers found that nearly half (45%) of companies have gotten rid of degree requirements for some jobs in the past year. Almost three-quarters of employers said that they prioritize skills over educational background when vetting candidates.

Some of the jobs seeing an influx of degreeless talent include construction managers, sales supervisors, web developers and other roles in cybersecurity and tech, according to recent research from McKinsey & Co. These jobs typically require certain technical skills or certifications, but not necessarily four-year degrees.

Other research suggests that not all businesses are following through on their promise to hire more people who didn’t graduate from college. 

One report from Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work project and the Burning Glass Institute (BGI), which analyzed more than 11,000 hires from 2014 to 2023, found just 20% of employers who dropped their degree requirements meaningfully changed their hiring practices.

The report notes that the cause of this trend is unknown but adds: “It seems likely that initial executive enthusiasm did not translate to a necessary change in underlying systems and practices.”

Speaking to LinkedIn, Dimon said high schools could be doing more to support companies’ skills-based hiring initiatives and introduce young people to degree-free career paths. 

“Schools have to now change their education a little bit,” he said. Teaching program management, basic finance, data analytics and cybersecurity skills in high school, for example, can help more young people land jobs that pay upwards of $65,000 a year without needing to go to college, Dimon added.

He continued: “It’s great for society. It’s great for lower income. It’s great for the companies. And I think, you know, most companies want to do it. It’s just, we haven’t been doing that in this country.” 

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