(CNN) – Thanks to the age-old art of bartering, a California teenager became the envy of all his friends when he pulled into school in a Porsche convertible.

Steven Ortiz, 17, dreamed of one day owning a luxury sports car - a dream that became reality after he posted a used cell phone on Craigslist.

"My friend gave me a free phone and said, 'Do what you want with it,'" Ortiz told CNN's "American Morning" Thursday. "So I put it on Craigslist on the barter section."

After some serious patience, research and a lot of talking, his cell phone trade landed him an iPod touch, which he managed to barter up for a dirt bike and then to a Macbook Pro laptop computer. Before long, he was the proud owner of an 1987 Toyota 4Runner.

Eventually, he landed a classic Ford Bronco SUV - the golden ticket that would soon get him into the driver seat of a luxury sports car. "I just went for it," he said. "I knew the Bronco was worth more at the end."

So what's his secret?

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Editor's Note: For many, the hip thing to do on the weekends is to hit up your local farmers market for fresh organic produce. Now, a surprising number of young and smart people are going a step further. They're ditching the city life to pick up organic farming, and with a lot of hard work, some of them are making a pretty good living. Our Carol Costello introduces us to one such farmer. Watch

By Carol Costello, CNN

(CNN) – Every week, at the University Farmers Market in Baltimore, Maryland, 28-year old Roy Skeen sells greens, squash and other vegetables. All of his produce came from his small, urban farm. He planted the vegetables, picked them, and hauled them on his bike to University Market.

It’s not the kind of life he had in mind for himself when he graduated from Yale University in 2004. He majored in History and thought he’d land a job in a minute. He didn’t.

“The story that’s told about Yale,” he says, “is you’re an intelligent person if you go to Yale. But I graduated and I didn’t know how to do anything useful. I could go make green pieces of paper with dead presidents on them, but I couldn’t do anything practical.”

Skeen tried to “do something practical.” He headed to New York to work in investment banking, but he found that life stifling. After a trip to the Caribbean, he found his calling: farming.

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(CNN) – The lesson of the film "The Blind Side" is that one act of kindness is all it takes to turn a life around. Actor Quinton Aaron starred with Sandra Bullock in the Oscar-winning film, and he's taking that lesson to heart. He's in Washington today promoting the nonprofit group, "Children Uniting Nations," which pairs at-risk and foster kids with mentors. He joined us on Wednesday's American Morning, along with Beatrice Franklin who was mentored through the program.

(CNN) – Old Spice has been around for generations. It was once the go-to gift for dads everywhere. Today, a new Old Spice ad campaign has taken the Internet by storm. Jason Bagley is part of the creative team behind the new ads and he joined us on Monday's American Morning.

(CNN) – They say breaking up is hard to do, but how does the brain react to getting dumped? A new study looks at what's going on in our brains after breakups. Helen Fisher is a biological anthropologist and research professor at Rutgers University. She led the study and she joined us on Wednesday's American Morning to explain the findings. Watch