How to become a CEO before you're 30

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg became the world's youngest billionaire in 2008 at the tender age of 23. The CEO of the social network is now worth more than £11bn and he's still only 30. Whatever you think of his era-defining invention, it's an incredible achievement for someone so young. Apart from having a great idea, what was it that catapulted him from college nerd to one of the world's top 100 business leaders?

We spoke to three young leaders who made it to the top by the age of 30 for their tips and advice on how to fast track your journey to the boardroom.

Danny Waters, 29, was made CEO of secured loan providers Enterprise Finance when he was just 25

I joined the business in 2003 when I was 18. At the time, it was almost a gap year for me and I was deciding whether I was going to continue my studies or go travelling for six months. But I really enjoyed the environment and culture of the firm. Within a short period of time, I managed to develop and learn some skills within the sector. I also became pretty good at it compared to cohorts in my age group. That really allowed me to stand out to my superiors and bosses. It was at that point that I had the option to go travelling or stay at Enterprise. You usually come out of university riddled with debt and I realised I might not get a better opportunity. It therefore seemed sensible to see how that career played out. From starting as an office administrator, I worked my way up to underwriting and became the head, and then director, of operations of the firm. I was managing director of the business by the time I was 22 and CEO by 25.

Part of my success is down to being in an environment where I was allowed to excel. I worked with people who didn't discriminate against me because of my age, which would have been very easy to do. Then there was lots of hard work, commitment and dedication. You also need some intellect about you, as well as ambition. I actually made some mistakes along the way and probably tried a little bit too hard to gain people's respect at first. I took myself very seriously. My advice to aspiring young leaders is never lose sight of who you are. Don't try too hard to impress other people. That doesn't become much fun along the way. It's really important that you enjoy what you do because if you do, then you tend to achieve and excel at whatever career you are in.

Jonathan Samuels is 36 years old and became CEO of Dragonfly Property Finance when he was 28

Becoming a successful young leader is about absolute ambition and hard work. There's a lot of risk taking involved as well. When you are young, you normally don't have the responsibilities of a family and a mortgage. You can take those risks and because the consequences of failure are far less, you can afford to be bolder.

You have to be absolutely comfortable with managing people who are older than you. Working with colleagues who are more experienced than you should be seen as a positive. But you do need to assert authority to show that you are actually in charge. As soon as that is understood, you will be respected. That is a challenge though, as there will be times during negotiations with other parties when people will be surprised by your age. In my experience, they will get over that very quickly when they realise you know what you are talking about. Age just becomes a side issue. If you have achieved this much by your age, they will recognise that you are someone who will go on to achieve a lot more in life and will want to stay close to you. It can be a huge positive.

Dan Hooper is director and co-founder of Piccadilly Group. He became an associate director at Capita at the age of 30

Some people are born to be leaders. Managing is easy but leading is very different. We all have different skillsets and it's about utilising the gifts you are given in order to succeed. My gifts are seeing the big picture, complex reasoning and really gluing a team together. While I recognise my strengths, I also recognise my weaknesses. In general, young leaders have more get up and go, more enthusiasm and passion. Experience helps but you need raw talent, innovation and passion. We all become a bit jaded over the years, so you need to always inject new fuel and lifeblood into things.

You need determination, otherwise you will be dead in the water. I went from doing powerpoint presentations eight years ago to running a fully fledged consultancy. Graduates have had it hard in the last couple of years but I think they have been a bit too mollycoddled. The reality is, you need to just crack on and get out there. It doesn't matter what you do, you need to just do it well. Even if you are just stacking shelves in a supermarket.

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