i think that it's pretty clear that getting rich is largely luck.  you were in the right place at the right time with the right skills.  if it was more than that, then you'd be able to repeat it without advice, right?<p>given that, two approaches make sense to me:<p>1 - treat it as a lucky break and consider how best to make it last over the long term, as a one-off.  but you say you don't want to do this in your question.<p>2 - try to somehow increase the odds of getting lucky again.  you can use money to improve your chances in various ways: by improving your skill set; by allowing you to fail more often before you starve; by out-sourcing work not associated with "taking a chance" to someone else; by entering a market with a higher barrier to entry (where you need to invest more up-front) but with, hopefully, less competition.<p>perhaps the best approach is to see (1) as yet another way to do (2).  in other words: invest the money so that you have a small but reliable income over as long a period as possible (a ramen fund, if you like), so that you can keep trying new ideas.<p>ps i think the biggest argument against the "luck" hypothesis is that very rich people tend to get richer.  but i suspect that's because they exploit information available only to people in their position; $24k doesn't buy your way into that.