The importance of passion

(Read time: 2 minutes)

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of Prequel.

An especially big welcome to the [insert number on day of sending] parents who have joined us in the last week. We remain one of the fastest-growing parent communities on the internet with [insert number on day of posting] parents joining in our first month since launch 🙌 

In case you’re new here, Prequel is the free weekly newsletter for parents who want their kids to succeed. We give you weekly insights on how your children can get ahead ― in school and in life.  

We’ve got lots to tell you, so let’s dive right in. Here’s what you’ll get today:

💡 Valuable things kids don’t learn in school
⚡️ 2 Short lessons
🚀 3 tools to boost your family’s productivity

💡 Valuable Things Kids Don’t Learn In School

Why passion is the key to success - and how to find it

Ashley Qualls became a millionaire at age 17 and turned down a $1.5 million dollar offer from MySpace.

Our mental model of the world is that only adults can build valuable things and achieve outlier success - but the reality is that teens build incredible things all the time:

• Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook at 19.

• Michael Dell also founded Dell at age 19.

• Fred DeLuca founded Subway at 17.

• Catherine Cook started MyYearbook at 19 and sold it for $100 million.

I can go on and on, but here’s the deal: kids can achieve amazing things under the right circumstances and in the right environment. And one key ingredient makes the biggest difference: passion.

Steve Jobs said: “You have to have a lot of passion… it’s so hard, that if you don’t, any rational person would give up.”

Passion is the fuel that makes people go that extra mile when no one else would, and work that extra hour and when no one else would. That’s what separates the winners from the rest.

Ashley Qualls is a case study in the importance of passion.

She created a unique punk rock style and applied it to MySpace pages and other projects. At age 14, she decided to build a website dedicated to her designs. Soon enough she started attracting other people who were interested in her designs - millions of them. By age 17, Ashley was doing over $1 million in annual revenue, and had turned down a $1.5 million offer from MySpace.

This whole thing grew from one kid pursuing what they were passionate about. And she’s not the only one. Almost every teenage success story can be traced back to a kid going after something they were really passionate about.

That’s why at Prequel we’ve developed the Pathway to Purpose workshops. It’s a series of workshops that helps kids in grades 7-9 find their passion and purpose.

Kids who attend the workshop come out with a clear purpose and action plan for what they want to do next in their lives. See it for yourself:

Our team has helped hundreds of kids figure out their life path from starting their passion projects, to landing dream internships, and building a startup.

If you’re a parent who wants their kids to find and pursue their passion, come check out The Pathway to Purpose workshops for kids grade 7-9. Next workshop starts in 2 weeks. Click below to learn more:

⚡️ 2 Short Lessons

1. The key to fulfilment and success (link)

2. How kids can learn entrepreneurial skills in high school (link)

🚀 3 Tools To Boost Your Family’s Productivity

1. Explainpaper: Upload a paper, highlight confusing text, get an explanation. (link)

2. Notion AI: Notion AI organises your notes and automates tedious tasks. (link)

3. AskHubermanAI: Ask health related questions from an AI that was trained on episodes of Huberman Lab, the most popular health and fitness podcast in the world. (link)

Thanks for reading!

Did you find this issue helpful? Let me know what you thought of today’s issue and what you’d like to see from us next time.

Until next time,
Ivy
CEO Prequel, Beta Camp, Apollo
Follow my journey on LinkedIn