There is some wisdom in what the radio guy said, and some that I disagree with.
When I was younger, I tended to think in a more linear fashion. Do this, then once you've achieved it, you're ready for the next step, which is this. When you get to a certain point, and only then, are you really prepared for that. I thought that the traditional path (go to school, get a good job, find a girl, marry her, live happily ever after) sounded good, and was fully prepared to follow that path.
Here's the problem. Life is not linear. There are always multiple things going on at once, multiple things affecting what you do today and will do tomorrow. Despite growing up believing in the traditional path as I understood it, by the time I was in my early 20's, I had completely abandoned it. I was in a band, we were going to be superstars, and I had no intention of finishing college, let alone finding some boring office job and making a paltry six figures. Clearly I was destined for greater things. Then the band broke up, every one of us had quit our day jobs and were suddenly not only broke but in debt and with no income, and most of us crawled back home to Mom and Dad. I'm just glad I had that option; not all of us did.
I returned to the kitchens. I'd been a pretty good line cook in a couple of different restaurants, and knew I could do it again, so I did. During the band years, I'd met a girl and we were still together, so that was cool. At some point, she suggested maybe taking a few classes at the community college. Not too expensive, and my parents even agreed to subsidize me. Fine, I took a few classes. Then a few more, because why not? To shorten the story a little bit, I ended up with a Bachelor's and a couple of Associate's plus a teaching certificate, and my first "real" (salaried) job was in a field I would not have even considered back in high school. Not only that, I enjoyed it and even turned out to be pretty good at it.
Anyway, the point is that life happens. I thought I had it figured out, but opportunities came up, so I left the path. That detour eventually ended, and I had to find another path. You can't plan everything; you can only choose what to do next when something unexpected (or even something expected) happens. She was with me the whole time, and I credit her for convincing me to go back to school. In that sense, she is as responsible for my success as I am. Yeah, I did all the work, but I wouldn't have done it, wouldn't have even considered it, had she not suggested taking a few classes at the community college.
"Don't give up on your dreams" sounds really good, until you realize that for most of us, they are exactly that: dreams. At some point, I realized that I was never going to be a rock star, or professional musician of any type. I probably could have worked my ass off, studied, practiced, studied, practiced, studied, and practiced some more, and maybe had some success. Or I could have done all that for years, and still end up like 99.9% of aspiring professional musicians, which is not being a professional musician. It made a hell of a lot more sense to do something else. Did I give up on my dreams? I guess you could say that. I prefer to see it as waking up.