<p>OK… while we guys are sweating to keep up with tuition to give our kids an education… this girl is hanging out at home all day playing on myspace and made enough to buy her mom a new house:</p>
<p>(Video link):
<a href=“Video News - CNN”>Video News - CNN;
<p>What’s the purpose of this post? Can anyone do this? Are you suggesting this is the new avenue to success ? Why work hard on your undergrad degree and beyond if you can make it “hanging out at home all day playing on myspace”. What kind of message is that to our young?</p>
<p>Um, I think Calmom was just pointing out an interesting case of a young and wildly successful entrepreneur. I highly doubt she was advocating dropping out of high school. I saw the video when it was posted a couple weeks ago and thought it was pretty interesting (sorry for not posting a response at the time!).</p>
<p>The article shows an interesting way one can think outside the box and sometimes do quite well. I showed it to both of my Ds - not as encouragement to drop out of school but as an example of what even young people can do if they come up with good ideas, work at developing the idea, and carry through with it.</p>
<p>Good post, ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad.</p>
<p>I always show my kids stuff like this. While emphasizing the importance of education, I would like them to be aware that creativity and “thinking outside the books” can take you places too.</p>
<p>Wow. Good for her. Her work doesn’t seem super-high-tech or anything, but she’s obviously a very enterprising girl.</p>
<p>Not to rain on her parade, but I would consider the possibility that she’s lying about her fortunes and also the possibility that she’s just a figurehead and that there’s a real web site promoter in the background.</p>
<p>^^ There’s really not that much to what she’s done. It’s not beyond the technical capabilities of most of our HS kids. </p>
<p>She happens to have a website a large number of people are attracted to for the free downloads and is making a profit from the advertising.</p>
<p>I can believe story.</p>
<p>Kid named Jared gets really fat and then makes millions getting thin eating subs.</p>
<p>Obviously a few people get lucky doing the unconventional. Pretty much as meaningless as winning the lottery. Only a few passions are lucky enough to make money on.</p>
<p>What do you mean by “meaningless,” Barrons?</p>
<p>The difference between what this teen did and something like winning the lottery is that it’s actually possible for one to specifically go after a marketplace, develop a business, and succeed with what the teen did as opposed to a random chance on a lottery (and a very low one at that). From the article this teen actually did somewhat ‘fall into’ this as opposed to aggressively following a business plan but there are companies who purposely set out to become a profitable company though a similar method. What she did is not that dissimilar to what Yahoo, Google, many other web presences, television, radio, magazines, etc. do - provide free to low cost desirable content and profit from the advertisements.</p>
<p>You can do it too - just dream up a way to attract hundreds of thousands of visitors daily to a website you setup.</p>
<p>Meaningless meaning it’s basically luck and not the result of much planning or effort. Kindalike eating yourself fat and then getting semi-famous for getting skinny eating bad turkey subs. Call it a dumbopoly.</p>
<p>Many inventions (and therefore businesses) are meaningless in the same sense, then.</p>
<p>I don’t think so at all. Most lasting ones are unique and involve some creative idea and a complex execution. In six months there will be 1000 people doing the same thing as that girl as it is not really unique or original. Or Microsoft will start doing it as part of Vista or something.</p>
<p>Well, I think the 17 y/o girl has done okay for herself. Although she admittedly fell into it somewhat, she pursued it enough to turn it into a successful full time business that she’s been offered millions for.</p>
<p>It’s not always about doing something highly innovative, unique, or original. It’s sometimes just about pursuing an idea that seems to have found a niche or just doing something better than the other guy.</p>
<p>Barrons, since I now do web site design/management for a living, I can assure you that it is a lot of work to maintain a high-traffic web site. It is obvious that this girl has spent many hours developing her site. It’s “lucky” in the sense that her site caught on while other, similar sites, have not – but that “luck” comes in part from the fact that her site probably “works” – that is, she probably makes sure that all the links work, that it is regularly updated with new content, etc. </p>
<p>One reason I quit my law practice and went into web design a dozen years ago was that I was bored out of my skull with law, and was looking for a new challenge. I wasn’t disappointed – the rapid advances in technology over the past decade means that I was always learning & exploring. </p>
<p>I didn’t post the link to advocate dropping out, but I did think it was interesting and I do very much believe that for many kids, college is not really the right path. So I do think its good for parents of kids who may be unhappy & doing poorly in high school to consider and explore other options. </p>
<p>It doesn’t take a degree in anything to successfully launch and promote a business – but it does take dedication and a lot of other skills. </p>
<p>I know plenty of kids with college degrees who are at a total loss for what they want to do with their lives. Many kids go to college simply because that is what they think is expected of them, and they really do not utilize the opportunity of the college education in the way that will benefit them the most in the long run. </p>
<p>I realize that this is a college board so most parents are here planning for college – but some of us have kids who are following or considering a different path. I don’t think the “Parent Cafe” area is inappropriate for posting
the success story of one teen who opted for something different.</p>
<p>
Exactly. Luck is involved (when isn’t it?), but so are other things. Many successful businesses evolve when some guy decides to enter a field, producing pretty much the same product as someone else while doing one or two things better or just differently. Many other businesses are based off “chance” inventions or inventions made for personal use out of necessity. Others are created for a specific niche of people. Just because a business wasn’t built from some college educated entrepreneur creating an entirely new product with a complete business plan in hand doesn’t mean the business is meaningless.</p>
<p>
Not only that but, who better to know what appeals to the typical MySpace site user/builder than a 17 y/o girl?</p>