The Advantage of Being Young and Fearless

At the age of 16 I dropped out of school to start my first company and I think the advantage that ended up happening at that time is when you’re young you really don’t have the concept of failure. You don’t really have the concept of fear.  

That’s why even when you’re younger than that you can probably learn how to swim and actually learn a foreign language when you’re a child, but the older you get, you end up becoming much more fearful of society and the people that are around you and more risk adverse.

So at 16 the confidence I had was really just based on the realization that I didn’t know the definition of fear.  I didn’t know the definition of what failure might lead to and I really didn’t have that much to lose. I guess when you believe in what you want to do and you put the concept of failure away the chances of success are even greater. 

60 Second Reads is recorded in Big Think’s studio.

Image courtesy fo Shutterstock.