Not that he looks dumb, he’s just so damn young. But, having just turned 21 a few days ago, Michael Dunlop straddles the world of online entrepreneurship with a masterful touch, an incisive mastery of his chosen field, and a generosity of spirit in the way he does his life and his businesses.
He also turned out to be my answer to one of my 110 Questions For 2010, namely:
I first met Michael through his father, Barry, who has been my main Internet mentor since he wrote me a fan letter saying what a major impact Moneylove had on his life. They’re both located in Sussex, England, but their online operations are worldwide. One of the first things that impressed me about Michael was that he has done something few modern young men do: followed in his father’s footsteps by choosing the same career of Internet entrepreneurship. And unlike a lot of sons who have tried this throughout history, I suspect Michael will eventually far surpass his Dad’s accomplishments despite Barry’s successful and creatively enterprising online presence (Sorry, Barry, I have to call them the way I see them). I wrote about Michael a few weeks ago in the post, Moneylove Minds, Moneylove Mentors, but that was just scratching the surface of this young man’s triumphs. He started his first website at the age of sixteen, and now has at least six. The ones I like best are:
www.IncomeDiary.com
www.RetireAt21.com
www.WebDesignDev.com
My very favorite is Income Diary, as on this site Michael puts more valuable free information on doing business online and creating successful blogs than any other website I’ve found. I have recommended the site to several friends and colleagues and they all report finding things of great value in his content. He is a master at finding and getting to know the most innovative people doing Internet business–and maybe more important, the people who are doing it with integrity and who are walking their online talk.
Michael is very forthright about his dyslexia and the fact that he’s a college dropout, but whatever deficiencies and challenges he faced he has more than overcome by conquering the world of cyber language, and developing an uncanny grasp of how the Internet works and what its real possibilities are. I have often believed that no one really yet understands the true power of this phenomenon, but Michael certainly comes closer than most to getting it, and passing it on. In the way he shares the people he meets and the new information he gets, he is an exemplary example of the “Pay It Forward” concept.
He was an easy choice for my first Moneylove Man Of The Year. Frankly, if I could afford him and he was willing, I would hire Michael to run all my online operations. And he’d probably be able to do it with one eye shut, one hand tied behind his back, and part-time.
Jerry
