Jihad Kawas started his company, Saily, when he was 16 years old growing up in Lebanon. Now, two years later, after a recent public launch, his app has over 140,000 U.S. users and is gaining over 1,000 new users daily. Jihad is a 2015 Thiel Fellow who never attended college. Along the way, he was awarded a Forbes 30 Under 30 Scholarship, took first place at an MIT Social Innovation Camp, and has been a TEDx Talk speaker.
This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, I share interviews with four young people, ages 18-22, each of whom decided either to drop out or never attend college, in order to pursue work that mattered. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs.
In this episode you will learn:
- how building things as a young person led him to where he is today
- why parents need to let their children build real, meaningful things
- his beliefs regarding the impact of parents, families, and schools on young people
- ways even cutting-edge schools have rules and policies that constrain
- how he viewed school as something to get through in order to pursue his passion
- the power of having to develop a pitch to persuade and convince
- the funny way he found out about the Thiel Fellows program
- what it is like to be an 18-year-old Thiel Fellow and company founder
- how the success and accomplishments of his peers spur him on
- how he spends his time
- about the constant battle he faces with uncertainty and doubt
- about his advice for young people
- what he is curious about today
Episode Links
Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)
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