1. He said that he doesn't consider retirement to mean no longer working, he considers retirement to be a lack of reliance on work to live. He has the option to never work again.
2. He (MMM) is 39 now, he's been retired for almost a decade. The article addresses "doing nothing", he does lots of things.
I born on a middle class family. From the day I born, I already had a pretty decent way of life.
Started developing web pages just for fun, took control of the family bussiness at a very early age, and today I'm what most people could call a rich guy, way more up on the social ladder than 10 years ago.
Retiring as this guy has been an option since the day I born, I just born in a "goldend cradle".
When I graduated from College / Grad School (I'm from Mexico, things work somewhat different here), I had been developing web pages and software for about 9 years, and I was tired of dealing with customers, providers, and programming at all.
I tried very hard to retire. I traveled around the world, meet some wonderful people, then I returned to my home town, played tennis, frontenis, golf, I went party all night every day I could. And it was one of the most tedious works I've ever done.
After about 15 months, I was tired of my "great life", and I started working on the family bussiness.
It's been the best thing on my life.
I'm still single (almost 29 right now), I've already purchased my own house, the company is growing every day more, I feel so happy I can't even explain it.
I could sell all the machinery, lease the buildings, and go back to doing nothing, but, really, working, is one of the biggest pleasures of life.
EDIT: On your definition "retirement to be a lack of reliance on work to live." I've been retired since the day I born.
2. He (MMM) is 39 now, he's been retired for almost a decade. The article addresses "doing nothing", he does lots of things.