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5 Surprising Insights Young Startup Founders Taught Me

Last weekend, I served as a mentor for a teen version of Startup Weekend: It was eye-opening.

Not only did the kids (ages 12–18) create inspiring startups in just three days, they did more in that time than I’ve seen full-grown adults do in an entire year.

I was going in thinking like I knew all the answers these young startup founders were going to ask. However, what I quickly realized is that they didn’t necessarily need answers as much as they needed guidance to help them figure it out for themselves.

Another surprise was that despite the careful planning of the event, a few things did not go as planned — yet it still turned out well. The snowfall kept pushing the schedule up, security alarms went off, people kept losing things, and some mentors failed to show up to teach workshops.

None of that really mattered to the committed people of this event.

None of this phased the kids and they just kept pushing through it all.

From my experience, I extracted a few lessons that even the most polished business person could benefit from:

1.Analysis Paralysis Is A Mindset — In one of my first businesses, I planned it out for over four months before even doing anything about it. I had my business model all worked out, and I even came up with a great marketing campaign. It was a total flop that could have been curbed within a week if I spent more time testing assumptions instead of planning.

As adults, we tend to overthink things. While this is often smart planning, it can also be a disguise for procrastination or analysis paralysis. All the time we spend brainstorming, hypothesizing about pre-mortems, creating contingency plans, and drafting epic Gantt charts won’t get us any traction until we actually start.

Often, kids don’t know enough about stuff so they don’t think about it. And they’ll never feel completely ready and that’s okay. In their mind, the sequence is Fire, Aim, Ready!.

2.The Curse Of Knowledge Is Real — As Drs Chip and Dan Heath point out in The Harvard Business Review, the curse of knowledge plagues nearly every expert. And it’s a shame because it creates an information imbalance and it keeps people from taking action.

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In a way, not knowing everything about a business topic was useful to kids. As good students, they were able to quickly ask the right questions and gather details as needed. They just needed to know enough to get started: they didn’t need to be an expert. This was liberating for them whether they realized it or not.

What kids do is just start with what they have and don’t give anything too much thought. They don’t know what they don’t know. I’m not saying ignorance is bliss. However, I do think that adults should practice explaining complex things to kids in a simple manner. That way, they don’t bury square one under heaps of information that keeps them from taking immediate action.

3.Asking Is An Art — When adults ask for things, sometimes it feels needy. Maybe as we get older, egos come into play more, and asking almost seems like a form of incompetence. Many adults think if they’re not experts or they need help, they are less valuable.

Kids don’t feel this way at all. It’s their job to ask since they’re still learning. The kids this weekend had no hesitation to ask for help, introductions, or information from mentors. What I appreciated was how direct they were. Adults tend to beat around the bush sometimes. Some have ulterior motives.

Most of these kids asked for help in the best way: cordially and bluntly. One kid said to me, “Hey, I heard you are a key asset to a local university. Do you mind if I pick your brain so we can help students in poverty make better decisions about American university campuses?”

Flattery, directness, and curiosity work with me every time.

Come to think of it, it works with every adult! As a writer trying to get the scoop on things, I didn’t realize that this was the same method I used to get complete strangers to open up to me.

4.Any Action Is Progress — We all know that taking action is important. In the startup world, one mantra is “err on action.” Another mantra is that if you’re not pivoting (changing direction but still moving forward), you’re not progressing.

I always felt that people pivoted too much and that if they’d just give something a longer chance it would work out. However, this weekend was about progressing under an intense time constraint. Kids had to build a real business in three days. Because of this, I think adults need to be more impatient with their goals and err on taking more action and risks.

As long as you take calculated risks that set you up to learn something valuable when/if you fail, it’s not a loss but a win.

Not taking action doesn’t really give you any results or feedback that can help you improve.

5.You Don’t Need Permission — Great teachers and parents tell kids if they work hard they can accomplish nearly anything, even their wildest dreams. Sometime around adulthood, we become far more “realistic”. At the opposite extreme, some adults even become cynical. “You just can’t go and do whatever you want!” the voice of reason shouts.

But in reality, you can do what you want if it improves the lives of others and it’s legal. Starting a company is a big deal. People will tell you it’s impossible or that you can’t do it. However, the kids this weekend heard none of that.

They wanted to build the impossible.

They wanted to create change in their community with their audacious micro-enterprises.

No critic was going to stop them.

As adults, we listen to critics in our head. They sound like nagging parents or haters, and maybe they are. But are they right? Do you need permission from them to succeed? You’re a full-grown adult, of course you don’t. So stop listening to them.

You have permission from yourself to build whatever you want. And in fact, the world may need it more than you!

Peyton is an educator and writer who loves to help people achieve greater focus and fulfillment in their lives through story. He has worked with private clients and global brands. Peyton is based in Portland, Oregon — a magical and mysterious city enveloped by a Douglas Fir rainforest.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 298,432+ people.

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