17 year old girl makes $70K/month online.

[Z5 FILMS]

Re: dropping out

i dont think shes missing the sociability part, being that her site revolves around that.

I think you missed my point. It's not about getting a diploma or GED. Those are just piece of paper for others to judge you on. There's certain skills one develops at that age that are important in life. More so than money I think. Like learning to make friends, how to communicate and interact with others. This is something you can't learn sitting in a basement on the internet all day while your friends are all at school in a normal social environment. Lots of home schooled kids suffer form this. Sure they can do college level math while they are still in 9th grade. But they have ZERO friends. They don't know how to communicare or interact with others cause they never learned how.

There's a chance this girl could wind up with $50MM, but have no friends because she does not know how to communicate and interact with others.

Remember the Unabomber? ULTRA smart guy. ZERO social skills.


.

 

[Andrew]

Re: dropping out

Remember the Unabomber? ULTRA smart guy. ZERO social skills.

Except the Unabomber did go to college, and graduated from Harvard.

I dropped out of college a year and a half ago. Definitely more social life since leaving.

 

[Peter2]

This is a great article about a 17 year old girl that is really in the fastlane. I think this is great inspiration for the ones of you that are interested in starting a profitable website.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/girl-power.html

 

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[Z5 FILMS]

In March 2006, an associate of MySpace cofounder Brad Greenspan approached Ashley with a bid valued at more than $1.5 million. She passed. Three months later, Greenspan's people came back with a second offer: $700,000, a car, and her own Internet show with a marketing budget of $2 million.

Her response:

"Sorry, fellas. "I created this from nothing, and I want to see how far I can take it," Ashley says. "If I wanted to do an Internet show, I could do it on my own. I have the audience."


LOL. I love it. That jackel Brad from Myspace got PWNED. What a crappy offer. If this chick can keep it up, she's going to be getting offer MUCH larger. Brad knows it too. I think he had her pegged for a sucker.

I hope this chick sells out for $50 million+ one day.

 

[andviv]

I think she should put up the business for sale, get a couple of millions... and then start over again... do it again and again. In any case, amazing, truly remarkable.

 

[FT1]

Re: dropping out

I think you missed my point. It's not about getting a diploma or GED. Those are just piece of paper for others to judge you on. There's certain skills one develops at that age that are important in life. More so than money I think. Like learning to make friends, how to communicate and interact with others. This is something you can't learn sitting in a basement on the internet all day while your friends are all at school in a normal social environment. Lots of home schooled kids suffer form this. Sure they can do college level math while they are still in 9th grade. But they have ZERO friends. They don't know how to communicare or interact with others cause they never learned how.

There's a chance this girl could wind up with $50MM, but have no friends because she does not know how to communicate and interact with others.

Remember the Unabomber? ULTRA smart guy. ZERO social skills.


.

There's a photo of her sitting on a couch with 3 of her friends, plus the article referenced her taking her friends out in a limo for a sweet 16 party, so it's clear she has a social life. Also, the ValueClick Media guy had no clue she was only 17, which suggests she's at least decent in her communication skills.

If it were my child, I would allow them to be home schooled and I would require that they continue to participate in Church and some sort of after school activity for balance.

 

[Rawr]

Social skills do not develop until end of 1st year - 2nd year of college unless you are really lucky in HS (skilled athlete, popular, good looking.. etc)

People sound professional on the internet when they have to. We all see it on the boards- we can write up documents and articles for newspapers and then post with simplistic words on a messageboard.

How much is college and friends worth though? No matter how much cash you got, it won't help you with friendships. Good for her though.

 

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[bert]

running dogg, I didn't read the comments so thanks for pointing it out and your analysis of the situation.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

I hope this chick sells out for $50 million+ one day.

That will happen ... and then the following day we will see David Bach lecturing us on his slow-lane, middle-class garbage on how to make millions by saving money in our 401K. Who the F*ck finds that compelling?

 

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[AroundTheWorld]

dropping out

I'm curious...

for those of you that read the article...

did you have any sort of emotional reaction when you read that she dropped out of school?
if so, what was it? why?

thanks.

 

[Z5 FILMS]

Re: dropping out

I'm curious...

for those of you that read the article...

did you have any sort of emotional reaction when you read that she dropped out of school?
if so, what was it? why?

thanks.

Yeah, I was disappointed to read that. I could care less if you go to college or not. But I do think everyone should at least get a high school diploma. The way I see it, high school is where you learn how to communicate and learn social skills and other basic life skills that help you throughout life. Those are something I think everyone needs to learn.
If you're at home in your basement all day working on XYZ.com instead of spending time with friends and learning communication skills and how to be social, I think you're missing out on something important. It's like being home schooled. I think you're missing something important if you're home schooled. You might turn out to be a math genious, but you have no idea how to talk to people or communicate. You'll be an introvert sitting in your basment with no friends.

Then again, $70K a month at any age is tempting. If I was in her shoes would I have done the same? Probably.

 

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[LightHouse]

Re: dropping out

Yeah, I was disappointed to read that. I could care less if you go to college or not. But I do think everyone should at least get a high school diploma. The way I see it, high school is where you learn how to communicate and learn social skills and other basic life skills that help you throughout life. Those are something I think everyone needs to learn.
If you're at home in your basement all day working on XYZ.com instead of spending time with friends and learning communication skills and how to be social, I think you're missing out on something important. It's like being home schooled. I think you're missing something important if you're home schooled. You might turn out to be a math genious, but you have no idea how to talk to people or communicate. You'll be an introvert sitting in your basment with no friends.

Then again, $70K a month at any age is tempting. If I was in her shoes would I have done the same? Probably.

i dont think shes missing the sociability part, being that her site revolves around that. i think the lack of a HS diploma will hurt credibility later in life, however she can always get a GED. problem being this is a huge oppertunity, a once in a lifetime. if she had not gone through with it... would it have turned into, i wish i would have, type deals.

 

[ErikV10]

This is a great article about a 17 year old girl that is really in the fastlane. I think this is great inspiration for the ones of you that are interested in starting a profitable website.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/118/girl-power.html

Great find.. and thanks for sharing.

As I continue to read threads here in Fast Lanes, I'm getting more and more ideas!

 

[Russ H]

C'mon guys, read the whole story.

This is no high school drop out.

She's doing online classes, and will have her HS diploma-- and-- probably an associates degree in design from Henry Ford Community College (good school, I grew up in Detroit)-- by the time the rest of her HS class is ready to graduate!

-Russ H.

 

[running dogg]

This should be a warning to all the 15 year olds who want to start their own business: get too successful, and some moron judge will step in and put a "guardian" between you and your company. She's lucky-most guardians (who are usually working with a fixed pot of money such as an inheritance) will simply steal the money for themselves and leave the kid to live in the barrio and work at McDonald's. Hopefully the girl in the article will get the guardian out of the way before long and regain control of her business so that doesn't happen to her.

On the positive side, she's done a lot already. She makes $70k a month just from ads, the designs are free. Imagine if she charged a couple bucks per pink heart. She's shown incredible maturity and a natural business acumen. It makes me think that some people are just naturals at business.

 

[yahshar]

As everyone else said, this is a great story.
As for her dropping out of HS, or should I say finish up outside of the classroom, I think it's a none issue. It's evident that she's developed many of her social skills. If she misses out on any positives associated with going to school, she'll miss twice as many negatives. That's less junk she'll have to unlearn later.
On a more important note, does anyone know of a way she could handle the legal matters with the state? What if she formed a LP with her mother, or a LLC or S-corp?

 

[Yankees338]

I'm still in high school and although I feel like I'd be perfectly fine with dropping out, I could never bring myself to do it. First of all, my parents would never stand for it. Secondly, I enjoy being with my friends and I don't find the work load to be bad at all; especially the amount that I do . Lastly, I can't refuse the chance to play baseball which will probably carry me through college too.

 

[Allseeingeye]

Apart from the learning to read and write aspect of schooling, I feel that schooling only dumbs you down.

How comes they dont teach finance, wealth, power of the mind, State Benefits, Tax, Law, or anything of practical use?

My kids will never go school, I will teach them, and they will be learning from the mind of a succesfull philanthropist.

To say that she wont be socially inclined is ignorant, if anything this wealth has given her an abundance of love and social life. Not only that, but at 17 years old to discover the power of her mind will be a learning curve no school can teach.

Blessings

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Great find, great article ... FASTLANE!!!! Rep speed added!

 

[andviv]

Yes, I read that one last week (I really like that magazine). What really struck me is that she had not network for supporting her. No rich uncle, MBA brother or anything like that. Amazing story.

 

[triple J]

Very impressive gal. I really like her commercial contest. Get your audience to make a commercial for you and the winner gets clothing and gift cards. I love it. http://www.whateverlife.com/videocontestvote.php

 

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[bert]

Peter, thanks for the article; it was an excellent read. It's unbelievable how young entrepreneurs are getting these days!

Here's a piece about the 17 year old owner of myyearbook.com that was mentioned in Peter's article: http://news.com.com/The+secrets+of+a+teens+Internet+success/2008-1038_3-6202845.html?tag=nefd.lede

 

[LightHouse]

Oh i understood i just mashed my two thoughts together when responding, sorry.

 

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[MrDoctor]

Very impressive! I checked out the site and it is indeed an attractive layout!

Good for her!

 

[MKyz]

Thank you for sharing. I found Ashley's story to be very inspiring, although I too was a little disappointed that she dropped out of high school.

On the other hand, it may have been the best move for her. I think all that she has learned since dropping out of high school is far more valuable than anything she couldn've learned by finishing high school.

 

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[Antonio.]

Great link Peter!!! I just received my magazine in the mail Im going to go read it now. Why are you guy's so disappointed she dropped out of HS?

 

[klh6686]

wow, its unbelievable what one can accomplish when they create a problem and figure out solutions as they go, instead of worrying about creating a problem. i'm blown away that she has handled her company as well as she has to the level she has and is continuing to do so making a majority of the decisions herself!

 

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[S928]

Damn, what a prodigy! This girl is definitely on the fastlane; seventeen and the world at her feet. Yikes!

 

[Z5 FILMS]

I don't understand how Big Brother can step in and take over like that. Is that even legal? If it's some stupid State thing, I would be packing up and moving out of state.

 

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[running dogg]

I don't understand how Big Brother can step in and take over like that. Is that even legal? If it's some stupid State thing, I would be packing up and moving out of state.

That's legal. Michigan tends to be unfriendly to business, anyway. Once the bank realized that a 17 year old girl was hauling in tens of thousands of dollars a month, they blew the whistle on her and turned her in to the government, and the judge appointed a "conservator". Usually this is a way for the government to haul in big bucks by stealing the money via the conservator and then splitting the loot. I suppose the bank would get a finder's fee.

She's smarter than to fall for that, but she has very few legal rights here if the conservator DID steal her business. These sort of enforced arrangements are rarely good news. I doubt she's even operating with the proper corporate structure, another bad idea. When your parents work in warehouses, you don't know about these things. I think that the conservator trying to cut Mom out of the company is a bad sign, and possibly a prelude to forcing the girl out of her own business and handing it over to his friends, who would take the money and can the site.