[MadGamer]

At age 17:

Nicolo Paganini dazzled audiences with his virtuosity and pawned his violin in order to pay gambling debts.

Artificial heart developer Robert Jarvik began working on his first invention, a surgical stapler.

After giving birth at age 8, Nigerian girl Mum-zi became a grandmother at 17.

Rugby college student William Webb Ellis invented the game of rugby.

Author Joseph Conrad, wanting to be a sailor, first went to sea. This was an uncommon ambition in land-locked Poland.

American author Jack London ran away to sea on a sealing ship headed for the North Pacific. After becoming a hobo and spending time in jail, he resolved to get an education.

Composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote his overture to Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." By this time he had also composed twelve symphonies.

Walt Whitman began teaching school in Long Island.