How Did You Get Your Footing?

Max Levchin cofounded PayPal with Peter Thiel and built it into a Silicon Valley success with the help of Reid Hoffman and Elon Musk. They took it public and sold to eBay in 2002, then all four left the company. But Levchin couldn't let go. He'd still show up at the office. On this episode of "Success! How I Did It," Levchin talks about how he struggled to find himself after the acquisition, so much so that his girlfriend dumped him (but they later married). He has since gone on to launch a bunch of startups and now spends most of his time as CEO of Affirm, which offers small loans but doesn't charge penalties or fees. But before all of that, Levchin grew up in Kiev, Ukraine, where he learned how to write computer code using pen and paper. And in the 1980s, his life was about to change. He lived near the Chernobyl power plant.

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