How Did Acun Ilicali Made A Fortune From Being A Simple TV Reporter
Hi, fellow Steemians!
Today I wanted to share a story of a Turkish millionaire on how he made his fortune.
His name is Acun Ilicali, a TV entrepreneur. He owns a TV Channel in Turkey now and operates several annual and seasonal TV Shows that still gets a lot of high volume ratings, even in an era of when tv usage is declining.
He was born in 1969 in Edirne, Turkey. A city in north-west Turkey, 3 hours ride away from Istanbul. He succeeded to enter a high profile high school in Istanbul but he always confessed that he cheated in exams in order to finish school and he goes on to praise himself on how good he was at cheating.
After high school he got selected to one of the best universities in the country which is Istanbul University. He could not achieve to finish university and he dropped out. Then, he got married at the age of 19. Shortly after, he lost his parents in a car accident, and he locked himself in for about a year and spent all his time home. During this process of mourning, he got divorced too. Then he reached that understanding made him remind himself "death is part of life". He bought himself a motorcycle and one day he had a bad accident that made him lose his friend that was along with him..
After experienced the depression of all he has gone through, he opened a clothing store with his friend, but during a currency crisis in Turkey, his business went upside down and he had to shut.
He loved video games. After his business was bankrupt, he spent time home with his friends playing games. One day, one of his close friends introduced him to a very well known sports news and football games speaker Ilker Yasin. With his reference, Ilker Yasin gave him a chance, with which Acun was going to impress him and get the job. This was in late '90s. He became a rookie reporter. He was very friendly and sympathetic to football players. Thus, he grew his reputation and network. He then started to broaden his network in the television sector too. He started working for a magazine program as a reporter again, no doubt his outgoing and witty character has opened the doors for him and later in 2002, with his name growing its reputation, he was chosen to run, prepare and present a program of his own which was called "Acun Firarda (Acun is on a getaway). The program was some kind of travel and explore program. He would go to countries, do sightseeing with his microphone in his hand and a cameraman following him up, attend various cultural events, festivals, talk with locals etc etc. He was quite good at it, had great ratings and very good comments. Personally, I was a big fan of that show back in those days, it had a contribution to my great desire to see different countries.
He created a media company under his name in 2015 and this is when things started evolving. Throughout his trips to different countries, he has been broadening his mind and vision. He made contacts, copied ideas of tv shows, and obtained information on how to set them up. After that, under his media company, he made various shows that are worldwide concepts as some of you may already know, "Fear Factor, Survivor, Deal or No Deal". Turkish people like watching television and these type of programs were a perfect fit for a fun time watching tv for them. He accomplished rating records with these programs and went on to operate them seasonally. Meanwhile, he finalised his travel program Acun Firarda in 2006. He also did singing, dance competition shows, and he also copied the idea from Britain's Got Talent. He was making millions each season. He did not stop and he bought himself a pretty well-known tv channel in Turkey, and he started to arrange the schedule of the weekly stream and emerge his shows into it.
He got married to a competitor that starred in Deal or No Deal in 2017 and got divorced in 2018.
I would also like to mention that, he hosted many celebrities in Deal or No Deal show, including Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera, Bruce Willis, Adriana Lima, Fatih Terim, Cem Yilmaz; this increased the program's success and the attention it has gotten very much.
One of his smartest moves on the way to his success was that he followed the society's interests and he took actions accordingly to their demands. Additionally, he never said "enough" and kept seeking for different concepts and ideas while he already had 2-3 shows ongoing and being very effective. Lastly, he kept the majority of his crew unchanged through the years.
Today's story from me :)
Healthy days everyone. See you in the upcoming post!