Johnson's entrepreneurial spirit was awakened at age 9, when his parents gave him his first computer, $50 and a checking account to help him learn about managing money. "I wanted to put more money into that bank account," says Johnson. "Things just expanded from there."

While most 10-year-olds were riding bicycles and playing video games, Johnson was the CEO of his first company, Cheers & Tears. The venture sold greeting cards that Johnson printed from his computer and eventually expanded to include online sales of Beanie Babies, ringing up $50,000 in monthly sales and making Johnson the second largest Beanie Baby retailer on the Internet.

Since then, he has launched a string of ventures that have brought him international fame and not-inconsiderable fortune.

These include SurfingPrizes.com, a business that paid users to surf the Web and at one point generated $15,000 a day in advertising revenues; Zablo.com, a group of online services for car dealerships that includes a system enabling potential car buyers to exchange their names, email addresses and phone numbers for a certificate worth $100 off the price of a car; and EmazingSites.com, aggregating several services from enhanced AOL Instant Messenger profiles to a $4.95 product that boosts cell phone reception.