Originally Posted by
B747-437B
I think the comparisons with Ben are inevitable, but not necessarily accurate.
For all the "smoke and mirrors" surrounding Ben right now, he actually has a college degree and his primary income source is not his blog/media work but rather his "award booking" travel agency services. Certainly the business benefits from Ben's media visibility, but there is an actual business providing services which could theoretically continue to operate if Ben's media presence were to be scaled back.
I'm the last person to criticise a young adult for making unorthodox career choices, but this person neither comes across as an adult nor does his choice come across as a career. I wish him well and hope he doesn't regret this choice in a few years time when it may be too late.
Smoke and mirrors is more of a reference to social media influencers, but one could potentially apply it to Ben as he's allowed many media outlets to promote this idea that he travels for next to nothing or for free. It's smoke and mirrors. If you pay to live full time in a hotel in order to obtain points to travel on... that's not traveling for next to nothing. If you purchase miles instead of churning credit cards or obtain them through MS... that's not traveling next to nothing. Then you have the fact that his early career was supported by fraud and not so ethical decisions.
I also don't know if you really need a degree in order to do what Ben does. You might have to defend that argument. Seems like a lot of what he learned business wise might have come with a lot of mistakes and maybe getting mentored by others in the industry.