At 22 years of age the death of his uncle forced him to retire from academic life and help the family business. He did so for eight years and did so well that at 30 years of age, he was able to retire and never needed to work again!!
He then returned to academic life where he became one of the most famous mathematicians of his day. His major work was in the Algebraic Solvability of Equations, the Solution of General Equation of the Fifth Degree and Elliptic Functions. ( It was his work which laid the foundations for the recent proof of Fermat's Last Theorem )