The story:
My name is Dan Legg, currently 20 years old and this will be a biography of who I am.
I was born on the 21st of August 1999 in Menorca, Spain. My parents had been living on the Island for a few years before I was born, which is odd as Mum is Scottish and Dad is from Cornwall!
By the age of 2 I started attending Spanish school and obviously being so young and still in my learning stage of life, my first language was Spanish. English was only really taught to me by my parents at home before and after school. Being fluent in 3 languages (English, Spanish and Catalan) really has its benefits especially when you become older, I feel like it has allowed me to expand my range of contacts across the world and also have access to so much more knowledge and info. I believe training my brain to understand and speak 3 languages has allowed me to learn things a lot quicker.
On the 19th of June 2002 (when I was almost 3 years old) my little sister Sofia Legg was born! Even though I don’t remember that day I’m told I used to be a very protective big brother! I was so happy to have a little sister, it was like having a permanent play buddy that never leaves the house! Even though with all the good times there was obviously the standard sibling arguments!
Throughout the years at Spanish school I was doing very well results wise in tests and exams and living a very happy life as a very close family.
I was never really in to football at school but I happened to enjoy basketball as that was the most common sport in my school. When I moved to England I learnt that no one really plays basketball here! However another hobby that I did pick up and really enjoyed while living in Spain was sailing! I had a little sailing boat that I used to compete in Spanish competitions around the Island and also surrounding Islands (Mallorca and Ibiza). I was very good at sailing for my age group and won a few trophies and medals over the years!
Around 2009 (when I was around 10 and Sofia was 7) our parents told us that we were going to move to England, after always visiting Centre Parcs on holidays to the UK in the winter we were very excited as we all had incredible memories of our holidays to the UK. We didn’t really understand why back then but we eventually understood when we got to the UK that it was for the benefit of our education, my parents wanted us to have a better education in the UK.
It was hard for us to say bye to all of our family and friends over in Menorca but managed to settle in and make new friends fairly easily here in the UK. Life was very different here though compared to in Spain; everyone seems to be really stressed and always rushing! I feel like a lot of people in the UK fake their happiness, of which I didn’t really see much of when living in Spain.
I settled into year 6 at school and quickly started learning that my English wasn’t as good as I thought! I didn’t really understand what people were saying to me; especially in a Somerset accent. I had about 2 years worth of after school English lessons with my English teacher to help me out.
I continued with my sailing (successfully placing 2nd place in the UK nationals for my age group) for around 2 years until I decided to pack it in as things were starting to get busier with school plus the climate in the UK is not the same as the Mediterranean Sea so I wasn’t enjoying it as much.
In 2013 my entrepreneurial character started to emerge, from playing video games like Minecraft with my friends and creating a multiplayer server so we could play together as back in the early stages of the game it wasn’t possible to play together. As my “server” began to gain an audience and hundreds of people were playing on it at the same time I decided to start charging for in-game features so people could upgrade their experience. I ended up making around £2,000 over a few months which was unreal at the age of 13!
Progressing through the years at school I was doing above average and took my GCSE and A Level in Spanish 2 years early and smashed them! Having one a level under my belt 2 years early had me excited to get going on the others in the near future. When I got to my GCSE’s I managed to do average, I could have done much better but I feel my focus had drifted elsewhere. When I say average I mean C’s and B’s which is great but I was hoping for B’s and A’s! I thought to myself ah its all good I will just smash the AS levels (the 1st part of the A level exams). So I tried very hard to study AS Levels in Computing, Psychology and Business Studies, still for some reason my focus was elsewhere, I’d started playing video games and socialising a little too much before my exams. I only really did well in things that interested me.
In June 2015 (almost 16 years old) I applied to work in a local Thai Restaurant, my parents bought an ice cream shop when moving to the UK and I had been working there normally but I fancied a change working for someone other than my parents. I had the job as a side job as well as obviously my GCSE’s and A Levels. Working in the Thai is still to this date one of my favourite things I’ve done! I had the job for a good few years and loved every second of it!
In August 2016 (17 years old) I flunked my A Levels (3 U’s) and was given the results while on a holiday in Menorca at the time. When I got the results it was a bit of a wake up call, a realisation that it was time to sort myself out. I flew back early as I was told that because my results were so bad, I was not able to return back to the school to re attempt them because I had failed so badly. It was time to sit down with my family and discuss what my next step was as it was then that I realised that my life was starting to head down a slippery slope.
We looked at different options and I decided that I wanted to pursue a career in the Navy, I applied for the role of a CIS (Communication and Information Systems Specialist) as a submariner, basically meaning I would be underwater most of my career! The idea was a little frightening but we all agreed I didn’t have much choice due to my failure of A Levels.
However as I was still 17 at the time I had to keep attending some sort of education until I was 18 (Around 12 months) so I decided to apply for a Business BTEC Diploma at Bridgwater college too.
September 2016, so things had started to look a bit better for me following the flunk of my exams, little did I know that I was approaching the worst time of my life.. On the 20th of September 2016 my amazing, caring, and super intelligent 14 year old little sister Sofia decided to take her own life following struggles with mental health and bullying at school. My whole world collapsed on the night I found her. It didn’t feel real, and to this day I still don’t think it has sunk in. I don’t think I have fully accepted it yet.
December 2016, after having over a month off from college it was time to try and kick start my life again after weeks of misery and upset. I wasn’t the same person when I returned to college; I struggled myself mentally and to an extent I still do struggle from the events in September. I also had a fear of leaving my parents at home mourning while I was in college and became very anxious as I’d now realised how quick life can change and that we need to make sure that every second counts. Sometimes I would spend the day with them instead of going into college just to make sure they were okay, as I said we were a very close family.
July 2017, at this stage I was still 17 years old and still working at the Thai but I had heard of the concept of exchanging currencies online and being able to profit doing so, I did a little research but wasn’t old enough to get started. The concept really fascinated me and it was only one month until my 18th birthday, I started learning about cryptocurrencies but also learnt that it was very volatile and risky. When I looked into FX trading such as euros, pounds, dollars etc I realised this was much more stable and predictable.
August 2017, now that I had turned 18 it was time to open an account and give trading a go from the info that I had picked up over the last month of researching it! Myself and one of my best friends ended up opening trading accounts to try it out. I have to say; we failed miserably and I lost my £300 investment. I was gutted as I was still working at the Thai Restaurant and £300 was a lot of money to me back then. However I continued to work at the restaurant to save up and used the rest of my time learning as by this point I had ditched the idea of college and didn’t bother returning for my second year as I didn’t legally have to and I had my training course for joining the Navy approaching and I had physically trained hard for the tests.
October 2017, it was at this point that the thousands of videos and pages that I viewed online over the last few months really started to show off, I began managing my risk properly and learnt to keep a level head instead of gambling like I had done previously. I was earning maybe a few hundred in October after investing my life savings of a few thousand. My friends suddenly became very interested in what I was doing and were offering to pay for my knowledge as they found it really hard to put all the information together from youtube videos and online websites. This is where I realised there was another money making opportunity for me!
November 2017, I was getting to grips with progressively earning a consistent amount from trading and had increased my income on the idea of teaching people, mostly friends. On the second week of November I started my 1 week Navy course to see if it was the career path I wanted to take. It was a tough week and I felt amazing after completing it; I felt like I had really achieved something! However the lack of freedom and so many rules and instructions you have to follow, I didn’t feel like this would satisfy me for a lifetime. I was 50/50 between the idea of joining the Navy or trying to seek success in trading but also teaching people how to trade. I took the gamble, I risked the Navy and turned down signing the joining contract. My parents were furious, they wanted me to have a secure job and income and also be safe, they felt the Navy was the solution to all the problems. I must admit, the income was stable and I was earning more than I had ever made before but it wasn’t life changing yet.
December 2017, now that I had realised how many people are interested In the concept of trading currencies it was time to work on building something that would boost my success to new levels and also create a massive feeling of fulfilment, I began selling coaching online via social media and a personal website. I spent around 4 weeks writing an online course expecting to make a little bit of money for my time. Little did I know the success that it would bring me over the next 12 months. It literally exploded from day I launched it, previous students were telling all their friends who then told all their friends and before I knew it I was making more money than I could spend.
February 2018, I decided to move to Southampton as I had some trading friends that I spoke to online now and then down there. And when you’re 18 and want to party its a little bit harder to do that when you live in the countryside so Southampton was the city for me. Some of my friends from home were down there also as they were at university in the near by areas. I found and rented an incredible flat in Ocean Village for around £2,000 per month. I think it was then that I realised; wait, I’m 18.. what is going on?!
From this point things started getting more glamorous, nice cars, nice holidays, comfortable life. And probably one of my biggest achievements is telling my parents they no longer have to go to work to try and pay their mortgage or bills, to tell them that I can now support them so they can retire and enjoy the rest of their lives.
Still, even to this date there is not enough money in the world to fix the loss of my sister, it has always been and will always be a massive struggle for me. However I know she is looking down on me and that she will be really proud of everything I have achieved and that really motivates me.
October 2018, nothing major had really happened over the last few months, mainly still trading and running my educational platform which was still doing amazingly; took on some more people to work with me, by this point I had around 10 people working on maintenance, support etc and the best part is some of them were my really good friends from home, which was great; they had a nice income while they are studying at university. But I did have another WOW moment; It was in October that I decided to hire a private jet to Paris and back for a few days. Honestly it was breath taking and the best part was I took some of my really close friends with me so that they could experience it too. I will never forget moments like these.
June 2019, after almost another year of hard work, sweat and tears I had reached my first million pounds which was insane because I was only a few months away from turning 19. It was an amazing achievement but far from easy. It also somehow managed to reach the press which caused my social media to explode and my following to grow. I was suddenly in the public eye which was really weird for me as I didn’t even have a Facebook profile picture for years! So all of a sudden I had thousands of people watching my day to day life activities, which baffles me because most of the time its boring! With all the attention obviously comes a lot of haters, being called all sorts of names and accused of random stuff all the time, I had to adapt and understand that it is part of having a social media presence I guess. It was quite cool to now have a following on YouTube and other social media platforms, I began providing free simple education in the hopes of helping people through my website and YouTube platform. People loved it!
In June I also surprised my parents with a private jet. I basically told them that I was booking a holiday to Menorca for a couple of weeks and booked us Easy Jet tickets there, little did they know it was only a 1 way ticket and I in fact photoshopped the return ticket. On returning back to the UK they thought we were going to be boarding a standard easy jet flight, to their surprise they were absolutely gob smacked when the pilot greeted us in the car park. Mum said she never thought she would ever step foot on a jet in her life, yet alone fly home in one! I documented it all on video and managed to catch her reaction of which I shared on my YouTube channel.
July 2019, I decided to leave Southampton as it didn’t feel very homely even after almost 2 years living there. I moved back to Cheddar and bought my first house about 5 minutes from mum and dads place. It was £650,000 when I purchased but now probably worth a whole lot more after the hours of work and refurbishment I put into it! I documented the before and after photos on a YouTube video too. Did a few other little things like sponsoring close friends and my local cricket team.
August 2019, obviously turning 20 years old I had to celebrate big, I decided to book a holiday to Magaluf, Mallorca - yes not the poshest of places but it is good to party and I went with around 8 or 9 school friends. On the day of my birthday I did hire us a massive yacht with some jet skis, a second boat for water activities as well as crew and chef to make it. It was amazing and yet another unforgettable experience.
December 2019, a few months prior I was contacted by a lady that does casting stuff via my Instagram, she told me they were filming a documentary (Rich Kids Go Homeless) and asked if I was interested, I was told it was about homelessness and I thought it would be great to do as I could potentially influence my audience based on what I learned from my experience. Anyway, the film crew arrived on the first week of December to my house and we filmed a day in the life kind of thing, they wanted to do a house tour and film some of my cars. It was great but I felt a tad uncomfortable as I hate showing off because I feel I am a decent and grounded person.
Arriving in London I was briefed and given a run down of what I was about to do and how it all worked etc, I think it was at this point that I’d realised what I got myself into, normally I go to London for meetings or as a little getaway and party, but now It had sunk in that I was about to do 4 days on the streets of London with absolutely nothing.
I won’t dig into too much detail of the episode because I don’t want to spoil it but it was one of the toughest things I had ever done.
I was dropped off by taxi into a random location, I don’t really know London that well so I wasn’t too sure where I was. I decided to try and find the iconic Shard as I figured it was easy to find as it was the tallest building in London and I was fairly familiar with that area. Whilst walking towards the Shard I approached various homeless people and sat down and had a chat with them to figure out how people turn homeless, it baffled me because I always thought people would have friends or family to fall back on. I learnt a lot during my experience and found out things I never knew before. I arrived at the Shard and set up base around there to try and get a night of sleep, I think I slept in the smoking area of a private hospital which was completely surreal for me.
I thought that with it being TV the show would be over dramatised a little and was expecting tea breaks and a little support. However they make it as real as it can get, the camera men and women don’t even talk to you, so it genuinely feels you are on the street by yourself. They have a zoomed in camera lens so they don’t even have to be near you, so people would genuinely think I was homeless.
I had 4 days to try and get myself off the street, I had a few money making methods, but you’ll have to watch the episode to see!
The biggest part of the show that really hit me was the part where I made a friend on the street called Mark (will get to why in a second), we were raising money together instead of individually and when I met him he really lifted my mood as I was feeling down from being homeless, I’d say he was around 50 years old but being homeless did not change his personality at all, he was not an alcoholic and didn’t take drugs, which a lot of people on the street seem to do as a coping mechanism.
I had a chat with Mark and we spoke about each others pasts and how we got to where we were, I wanted to figure out what happened for him to end up on the street. He explained to me that a few years prior his wife was dealing with mental health issues and ended up taking her own life; this really really hit me hard because from our chat I realised that we almost had an identical set of events in our lives however ended up going completely different paths from there. His struggle ended up with him losing his job and going down a very slippery slope in life to the point where he was beyond being able to recover and rebuild his life, where as mine didn’t. I walked off by myself for a few moments to think about life in general and really appreciate how life has ended up turning out for me.
However with the environment I was in and my overthinking I got emotional real quick and tried to hide from the cameras as I burst into tears. As the camera men had headsets on so they could hear my microphone they ran over to me as they heard me in tears and started filming, I asked them to stop once but realised after the first time asking they weren’t going to. They were confused and didn’t know why I was crying, I never really cry so I was kind of confused too. I explained to them and to the camera what had happened with my sister as they didn’t know this before.
It was really hard for me to speak about as I never like to bring it up as it brings back a lot of trauma from my past. However I am glad I brought it up and I feel like I might be able to help somebody at home watching the show to encourage them to keep trying, to make sure they know that it is not the end and they will make it through. It won’t be easy and there will always be a missing part of life that can’t be replaced by any amount of money, success or fame. Family is so much more valuable than any other substance In the world, and also one of the only things in life that are irreplaceable.
I am super happy that I did take part on the show because its a reality check but also made me understand that homeless people are nicer and have more personality than any of the normal people I speak to every day in person or online. Most of them have ended up on the street for reasons beyond their control, and the problem is as soon as you’re on the street its super difficult to get back off.
If I learnt anything from the show it would be to encourage people to say hello or have a chat with someone that is homeless because it means so much more than just receiving a couple of quid when you feel so lonely and ignored, its so difficult to get through each day, I only did 4 days so I couldn’t even imagine what months or years would get like. People turn to alcohol and drugs on the streets to cope, they weren’t alcoholics or addicts before ending up homeless.
April 2020, I’ve met a lot of goals and achievements in the past so meeting new ones now isn’t as easy so not much has happened in the last few months! Mainly because of this virus too. The episode is airing on the 2nd week of April and I’m nervous and excited to watch it.
Hope you enjoyed a little biography of my life so far.
Thanks for reading,
Dan Legg