Ever heard the phrase “you’re too young to ______ “? Yeah, me too. More often that you might think. But, to be honest, it’s quite normal to hear that because it is a mindset most people carry with them, even if they don’t want to admit it. Age is often seen as a major obstacle when talking about achieving something big or being successful. People think to be successful you need to have a lot of experience. I disagree. In some cases, experience does help you to reach your goals because as you try, you learn and one day you do it the right way and finally achieve what you want. But, in my opinion, experience isn’t the most essential characteristic someone needs to hold to be successful, you can be really young and already be considered a successful person. If you don’t believe me, here are a couple of stories that might illustrate better what I mean:

Daniel Fine, Team Brotherly Love and Dosed

Daniel Fine’s younger brother, Jake, was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes when he was 7 years old. So, at 11 years old, Daniel and his brother co-founded the organization Team Brotherly Love as a way to raise money to find a cure. Up to date, they have raised more than 1.9 million dollars for the cause and helped a lot of people with the disease. But Daniel didn’t stop there, he wanted to help more. So, he created Dosed. Dosed is an app that is intended to help people with diabetes manage their daily dosages better. It helps people with Diabetes who are commonly used to measure their insulin dosages by estimating, by offering them a new form of measure through the app, which is more precise, quicker and simpler.

Gabe Blanchet, Grove Labs

The way we produce and consume food nowadays is not sustainable because it ruins the soil in the ground, pollutes water runoff, worsens the changes in climate and encourages bad eating habits. With that in mind, Gabe Blanchet co-founded Grove Labs, an initiative that helps bring sustainable food production and consumption to people all around the world, with every type of weather all year long. He developed a system of called indoor aquaponic garden that allows people to have, fresh, natural greens grown in their own house all year round. They were able to help people all over the world who installed the system for them and were also able to give back to the planet at the same time.

Gabe Blanchet and Jamie Byron, Grove Labs, at the 2014 Kairos Global Summit

Daniel and Gabe are just two examples that were able to go beyond even at a young age. There are tons of examples out there and you could be one more of them. We, the youth, have the power to do more, to grow and make a change. Go after it and I’m sure you won’t regret it!