This is the real story of an YOUNG lad got rich quick after he launched a profitable business at home.
While his mates were playing video games and surfing the net, 16-year-old Josh Bell was busy setting up his own international company from his bedroom.
The youngster from Durham set up TRLA Hotels when he was 15 and last year the website turned over £250,000.
The computer whizz taught himself coding, built the website and contacted international hotel companies after a chat with a hotel owner on a family holiday.
He said: "I taught myself how to code, I have always been quite technical and interested in IT, it is something that I really enjoy doing."
Josh had the lightbulb moment when he discovered how much commission big-name holiday websites were taking from hoteliers and saw an opportunity to undercut them with his own company.
Now he has more than 95,000 hotels around the world signed up to his service and his business is going from strength to strength.
The schoolboy has the full support of his parents but he deals with the day-to-day running of the website on his own.
Josh said: "I talk to my mam and my step-dad about it but I think quite a lot of it goes over their heads. They just let me get on with it.
"My younger brother Owen says he wants to help out and get paid but then when I ask him to do any work he changes his mind."
Josh’s mum Linda is blown away by her son's business success but admits he gets none of his technical ability from her.
She said: "If anything, the better he has got at IT over the years, the worse I have become because I can just rely on him to sort things."
"He gets his IT skills from his dad I think."
"He has organised holidays for us as a family and for family friends and even designed a website for the local community centre."
"I am very proud of him."
Josh recently gave a talk on cyber safety at a Durham Constabulary event.
Linda added: "You do sometimes worry about these things, but I am trusting that he understands and stays safe online."
The student is currently waiting for his GCSE results and hopes to study IT, maths and product design at sixth form in September.
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