"...the Search is a lot scarier than we usually care to acknowledge. And this arises, ironically, from the success of Western Democracies, those with the capital "W" and capital "D." They have provided too much choice for younger citizens. Nobody but an idiot would deny this is a good thing -- even a wonderful thing. But choices are confusing. They take time to consider, to sample, spit out and reject. And too many of them provide a ready-made excuse for procrastination and shilly-shallying.

Not to mention fantasizing. It came as a shock to me to read in The Week that 20 percent of British teenagers in school claim they would abandon their education if they could just get themselves on television. In any capacity whatever. Just to be a "celebrity." Which probably explains the queues clamoring to be humuliated on "reality TV," a modern equivalent to ancient Rome's gladiator circuses. That is, it came as a shock until I remembered my own certainty at seventeen that I would knock the Rolling Stones flat on their ass.

All of us have our dreams. And these are not to be despised or mocked. They are a part of us, whatever they are."

-- From How To Get Rich (which is excellent)