CHAMPAIGN — Sizhao Yang, one of the creators of the online game FarmVille, always figured he would form his own company some day.

But at age 28, the University of Illinois graduate has already sold one company for "millions of dollars," formed another that employs 30 and is acting as investor or adviser to 18 others.

"I thought I would go this route, but I didn't think I would go this route this early," Yang said on a return visit to Champaign on Tuesday.

Yang came back to counsel about 65 people taking a leadership training session offered by the Champaign-based LeaderShape Institute. The six-day session is going on this week at the Allerton Park Conference Center near Monticello.

Yang, who now lives in Santa Monica, Calif., came to the UI in 2001 as a freshman from the Chicago suburb of Glenview. He received a bachelor's degree in computer science in 2005 and took a job with IBM in the Chicago area.

But it wasn't long before he decided "a big company is not really for me. You basically feel like an ant."

So he quit his job in 2006 and moved back to Champaign. Working from a kitchen table in an apartment at 509 E. Stoughton St., C, he founded MyMiniLife — a "virtual world" where users could create a house and decorate it.

Yang stayed in Champaign three months, then departed for grad school at the University of California at Los Angeles.

But he soon realized he had to ditch grad school if he wanted the company to succeed.

He convinced friends from UI days — Joel Poloney, Luke Rajlich and Amitt Mahajan — to join him. Two had already graduated, but one was still an undergraduate.

"I convinced him to drop out, and his parents were not too happy," Yang said.

Then, they moved to the Bay Area to develop the company and seek financing. Yang said his time there was "a classic garage story" where "we lived on the second floor and programmed on the first floor."

Although MyMiniLife attracted a lot of users, it didn't do a good job of retaining them long-term. To increase retention, the MyMiniLife crew decided to create a game. Users indicated they wanted a simulation game with avatars that would represent players.

But what kind of game?

Yang said he and his colleagues considered "a pet game, a music game and a farm game" before settling on the last one. It would be FarmVille.

In the meantime, MyMiniLife was fielding acquisition offers, Yang said, likening the situation to an eBay auction. MyMiniLife was eventually sold to Zynga Game Networks, and the FarmVille game was released two weeks after the acquisition.

Yang remained with Zynga for a year and a half, designing FarmVille for the iPhone and working on other projects.

He left Zynga last October and formed BetterWorks, a company that provides employers with fringe benefits for employees — including arrangements with restaurants, dry cleaners, gyms and yoga studios.

That company, based in Santa Monica, has 30 full-time employees.

Yang said his story "may seem like a smooth ride, but it was not a smooth ride." He said he constantly had to explain to potential investors why they should invest in his company.

He says some of the best advice he's heard comes from comedian Steve Martin, who advised people to "be so good they can't ignore you."

Yang says many people think of entrepreneurship as a risky proposition. But he said good entrepreneurs "describe opportunities succinctly in a risk-free manner" and actually take the risk out of ideas by showing how they can be successfully executed.

Yang himself is a veteran of LeaderShape Institute training, having attended one of the sessions years ago.

He described the training as "a very immersive experience" that "pulled you out of your shell" and provided a "support group."