Tom Szaky
Terracycle
Trenton, NJ USA
"The challenging part is in the beginning; it's a leap of faith."
Career Roadmap
Tom's work combines: Business, Environment & Nature, and Upholding a Cause and Belief
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Here's the path I took:
High School
Bachelor's Degree
Economics, General
Princeton University
Life & Career Milestones
My path in life has been direct
1.
His parents immigrated to Canada from Hungary and they always placed a huge emphasis on his education.
2.
When he went to Princeton University, he encountered a problem: while in Canada, he could drink alcohol at 18, the legal age limit in the U.S. is 21.
3.
To solve that problem, he and his friends took a weekend road trip up to Montreal.
4.
While there, they hung out with some friends who were using worm poop (rather than chemical fertilizer) to grow plants in their basement.
5.
He realized that you can get paid to take someone's garbage, and then, using the worms, you could turn that into a fertilizer you could sell.
6.
After he returned to Princeton, he was obsessed by the idea; he drew out a business plan in his dorm room and decided to drop out to pursue it.
7.
His parents had a hard time accepting that he was going to drop out of this amazing university, but his passion for the project reassured them.
8.
Today, TerraCycle is a multi-million-dollar green company, and in 2006, Tom was named "#1 CEO Under 30."
