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That company was Zscaler, which aimed to help companies transition away from outdated firewalls and into the cloud era.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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The key to success is to never stop trying to learn new things, according to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy.

“You have to be ravenous and hungry to find ways to learn,” Jassy said last week in a video posted by Amazon about the company’s famous list of 16 leadership principles, originally penned by founder Jeff Bezos.

One of those principles, “Learn and Be Curious,” says the best leaders “are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves.” Jassy said he’s seen that ability make the biggest difference between people who successfully grow their careers and those who remain “stagnant.”

“For some people, at a certain point, they find it too threatening or too difficult to keep learning,” he said. “The second you think there’s little left for you to learn is the second that you are unwinding as an individual and as a learning professional.”

Continuing to learn as you age can improve memory and other cognitive abilities, while also making you happier, research shows. And employers are often keen on hiring and advancing workers with a “growth mindset,” where you continuously try to adopt new skills and improve your abilities, LinkedIn workforce expert Aneesh Raman told CNBC Make It in March.

Jassy and Bezos aren’t the only high-profile professionals who think that way: Julia Stewart, the CEO who merged IHOP and Applebee’s into a roughly $530 million restaurant giant, says that “You should be learning for the rest of her life” is her mantra.

Good leaders have to realize they don’t always have every answer, and be comfortable learning from the people around them, Stewart told Make It in May. “I think as you get older and you become successful, you realize: ‘I don’t have to be the smartest person in the room,’” she said. “I’ve never had somebody say, ‘No, I’m not going to help.’” 

Jassy agrees. “You have to think about the idea that you don’t know everything and that there’s a lot to learn,” he said. “Even if you spent many months or years learning a certain area, it may flip upside down very quickly.”

His advice: Stay humble in those upside-down moments, so you can find the joy in learning new things and continue to grow for the rest of your life and career. 

“Instead of that feeling threatening and scary, you have to think about that as being part of the fun of what you do,” Jassy said.

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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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Being alone is not the greatest risk to memory loss, a new study found. However, feeling lonely is.

Researchers at the University of Waterloo followed four groups of adults during a six-year period to see how loneliness and social isolation affected memory loss. Participant categories included those who were socially isolated and lonely, those who were only socially isolated, those who were only lonely, and those who were neither.

Respondents who were socially isolated and lonely had the greatest decline in memory. But loneliness alone, not social isolation, had the second greatest affect on memory.

While social connections are proven to keep you sharp and happy as you age, it’s just as important to stay mentally active whether or not you’re around people.

“Brains never complete their wiring,” said Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, psychologist and neuroscientist, during “The Science of Aging Smarter” class.

And your brain’s ability to change its neuron wiring, also called plasticity, lasts your entire life. This means you can learn new skills at any point.

One way to improve your brain plasticity is to try new things.

“Any time you encounter something you didn’t anticipate or you didn’t predict, and it’s possibly useful in the future, your brain is gonna attempt to learn it,” Barrett said. “And learning is plasticity.”

Activities like traveling, learning a new language, or reading a book can all improve your brain health.

Physical activity can also stimulate brain cell growth, Dr. Wendy Suzuki, a neuroscientist and dean of the New York University College of Arts and Science, told CNBC Make It.

“Forms of activity that require strategy will work your prefrontal cortex more,” she said.

Of course, having stimulating social connections isn’t altogether useless. In fact, meeting new people can improve your brain plasticity, as well.

“All of these things are metabolically challenging now,” Barret said. “But they’re like an investment in a healthier, stronger you.”

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Theodoric Chew suffers from panic attacks and an anxiety disorder. But, he’s never allowed it to stop him — in fact, it’s inspired him to help others struggling with the same.

Today, he is the 28-year-old CEO and co-founder of mental health startup, Intellect, that’s raised over $20 million.

“We’re not just an app, we are not just a distress helpline,” Chew told CNBC Make It.

Intellect is an “integrated mental health-care system that aims to tackle any level of risk and need,” he said.

“It could be as acute and critical as a crisis call [where] you need to speak to someone on the ground … to as small as wanting to be more confident,” said the Singaporean CEO.

Founded in 2019, the company’s services range from mental health screening tools and self-care programs, to consultations with clinicians and in-person clinics. Intellect has over 200 employees across 12 countries and says it has served over 3 million people as of 2024.

From drop-shipping to ad arbitrage, Chew started experimenting with various internet businesses throughout his teenage years.

“A lot of this started during my secondary school years (ages 12 to 16) … I was already working on a couple of my own things at that point,” said Chew, who attended Raffles Institution, a well-known and prestigious school in Singapore.

At age 16, Chew decided to drop out of high school.

“Looking long term, I really didn’t see myself going the path of … being a top student, going to a top university, or being a top lawyer or doctor,” he said.

But what he clearly knew was that he wanted to spend more time building things. “For me, it’s by actually working in startups rather than, you know, the theory of it.”

Chew caught a couple of “lucky breaks” after dropping out, he said.

By age 20, he had already founded and successfully exited his first startup, Existgreat, a self-help content platform that featured interviews with the likes of American entrepreneur and speaker, Gary Vaynerchuk.

Following the acquisition, Chew went on to work at a couple of startups, where he gained more experience.

Recounting his own journey with mental health, Chew said: “I got my first panic attack when I was 16.”

“That’s when, actually, I realized something seemed a bit wrong,” he added.

Chew went on to seek the help of a therapist, and was later diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.

Through his own experience, the Singapore-native found a glaring problem: while mental health issues are prevalent in Asia, the space is largely underserved.

According to World Health Organization research, “almost one billion people globally live with mental health conditions of which approximately 260 million people live in the WHO South-East Asia Region.”

In addition, about 82% of workers in Asia have a “medium to high” risk for developing mental health issues, according to a report by insurance broker Aon and Telus Health.

“For me, a few things were starting to piece together,” said Chew. “It’s not news that Asia has one of the highest mental health crisis rates, but stigma is super strong.”

Naturally, there are cultural and historical nuances that shape how Asians tend to treat their own mental health. They tend to be less inclined to share their feelings openly, explained Chew.

“That trickles into a broader, societal focus of health care as well. A lot of investment and innovation goes into secondary, primary and tertiary care — we see hospitals being built,” but the mental health-care market lacks maturity, Chew said.

Chew saw that his friends were also struggling with their own mental health needs, and they didn’t know where to begin.

There was “quite practically very little to no innovation happening in the mental health space in Asia,” at that time, he added.

“Not a lot has been done, but the issues are very real,” said Chew. “So, that gave us a very good starting point: how do we address this issue of helping people to get started?”

And so, Intellect was born.

“I think in the very initial stages, any founder needs to be a bit delusional,” said Chew. “I don’t think I’m the smartest, I don’t think I’m the most capable but … I am naively ambitious, and I think that has served me reasonably well,” he said.

Throughout his journey so far, Chew has been distinctly aware of his strengths, and more importantly, where he is lacking. By knowing where his weaknesses lie, Chew outsources certain skills and jobs to employees.

“As a founder, particularly a young founder, you need to be very aware of where you’re not good at, rather than where you’re good at, and be open minded to learn,” he said. “Our entire executive team is much more experienced and senior than I am.”

Along with being “naively ambitious” and being highly self-aware, the key to Chew’s success has been three-fold: Having an innate interest in building things, having the drive to experiment with ideas, and expecting challenges along the way.

However, the reality is that “it never gets super straightforward or easy for anyone, so there’s always that inertia to overcome,” Chew said. “I think [expecting] that to be part of the journey is also a very important thing.”

Looking ahead, Chew wants to expand Intellect beyond Asia, with the goal of being the “global leader in hyperlocal mental health care,” he said.

“The journey has been very exciting and rewarding … I didn’t even expect how quickly we could actually serve a very glaring need.”

When asked about how he handles the anxiety and stress of being a startup founder, he said he works on regulating his emotions and stress, and tries to compartmentalize.

“Parking work at work sometimes is really required,” he said.

“I think having my own personal downtime in space is important for me to function for the long haul.”

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