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I'd say it's a bit harsh to say Dale Stephens hasn't achieved "any tangible success," Michael. He supports himself fully as a professional public speaker, at age 19, and he does so without being "famous" (movie star, athlete, musician, etc.) Tens of thousands of professional speakers, many into their adulthood, would kill to have the professional life he has. Indeed, as someone who supports himself fully as a freelancer, I'd say that's already a level of success that many adults seeking to strike out on their own dream of. True, he's not a gazillionaire, but I specifically chose to write about him for that reason. Had I written about, say, the usual suspects when giving examples of successful young people without college degrees (Mark Zuckerberg, etc), someone else might have said, "But they're the outliers! Average kids can't expect to be like them!" He has reached a level of success which I believe is impressive for his age, and which many adults would envy. BTW, he was just named one of the Thiel Fellows, and was chosen as one of 24, among 800 applicants, to win $100,000. I'd say that's a pretty impressive accomplishment, compared to what many 19 years have accomplished so far. (I'm the author of the article you're critiquing here.) |