School is not enough

The most successful people did more with their childhoods than just attend school. 

Simon Sarris’s recent article “School is Not Enough” gives several examples:

• Leonardo da Vinci was a studio apprentice to Verrocchio at 14.

• When Vladimir Nabokov was 16, he published his first poetry collection while still in school.

• Even 12-year-old Steve Jobs got a summer job at Hewlett Packard.

Would these people have achieved the same success if they’d only gone to school for 12 years and done nothing else?

Today we’re covering:

• Why grades aren’t the only key to success - and what you should focus on instead

• What it takes to be exceptional, not average

• How to go off-script to help kids find their passion (hint: it won’t happen in school)

Imagine your child not just dreaming, but building their first business by age 13.

At BETA Camp Junior, in just 8 weeks, they’ll not only learn business—they’ll start one.

Dive in for a transformative experience, from idea to real customers.

Spaces are limited — Secure their spot today.

💡 Stop worrying about grades. Focus on this instead.

Getting top scores on a standardized test or the best grades in your school shouldn’t be the only way to demonstrate brilliance.

Reflect: We’ve all seen the headlines — parents who place too much emphasis and expectations on grades set their kids up to be depressed, anxious, and perfectionistic.

Redirect: We should be easing up our expectations when it comes to grades — and raising our expectations elsewhere. Grades are ultimately thinking too small — kids are capable of more than this.

Reality check: Far too often, we underestimate what kids can do.

What if instead of pushing kids to get perfect grades, we tried pushing for our kids to…

• Start a business and create something new for the world?

• Get a job working under an inspiring mentor?

• Launch a civics campaign to effect change in their local community?

• Figure out what they LOVE doing more than anything else?

• Study something they’re passionate about and conduct their own research?

Learning by doing: What might kids learn from doing something bigger than just school? What might kids learn from having what Simon Sarris calls a “useful childhood”? And how might those learnings compare to what they would’ve learned (and perhaps promptly forgotten) in school?

Kids with good grades are a dime a dozen. To be exceptional, your kids need to do more.

It’s no secret that college applications are more competitive than ever — helping kids stand out can mean the difference between getting into their dream school and getting rejected.

Why it matters: If every kid has good grades, SAT scores, and an impressive list of after-school activities, how can your kid stand out?

Going off-script: The most successful people go off-script early, and do something that most people never expected a kid could do. We’ve shared tons of examples of kids who have done unique, incredible things during their high school years — whether that’s starting a design agency at 15, interning for a best-selling poet, or garnering thousands of followers on TikTok.

More than an application: Doing something exceptional does more for your child than helping them stand out in a crowd of carbon-copy applications. It helps your kid leave their childhood with experiences that carry real value, which they can leverage to create more opportunities for themselves down the line.

Because when kids do get into college, they’re going to be competing again — this time, for internships. What will matter most at this point is not impressive-looking resumes, but whether or not your kid has real skills that can bring value to a company.

A fruitless game: Kids are being pushed to the breaking point to get into top colleges — but their results aren’t guaranteed.

What is guaranteed — if our kids never get a chance to go off-script, they’ll miss out on the opportunity to discover themselves and what they truly want to do in life.

School doesn’t help kids discover their passions. Here’s how to help your kids find theirs.

Kids are graduating high school with no clue about what they want to do with their lives.

Why it matters: Kids spend 12 years of their education being told exactly what to do… until the time comes when they need to decide what to do.

Going undeclared: Colleges are quick to argue that your kids can be undeclared and use their time to explore — but the real world offers a much lower-stakes playground to explore interests (not to mention a lower-cost one, too).

Imagine if kids began to do nothing but explore careers and passions starting in 9th grade. Imagine spending 4 years exploring the adult world, trying things out, interning, building projects, and seeing what sticks?

By graduation day, they’d have a clear sense of direction — including which college and program would best help them achieve their goals.

How to get started: Going off-script is the exact thing we ask kids to do in our programs.

• At Apollo, we help kids aged 10-13 try out a new field every week through hands-on challenges and real-world projects — so they can try out different career possibilities in the most relevant industries.

• At BETA Camp, we teach teens everything they need to start a business — from ideation to earning their first sale.

• In our workshops at Prequel, we help kids build critical life skills that aren’t taught in school (like how to start investing and how to master AI).

🚀 Community Highlights

Last week, we wrapped up our latest BETA Camp cohort! Here’s what our students had to say about the experience:

• “Signing up for BETA Camp is probably the absolute best decision I have made in years.” - Thomas Torrisi

• “Loved it, changed the rest of my life for sure.” - Sanjay Mukhyala

• “BETA Camp was the most fun I’ve ever had in a summer program. Normally, my parents signed me up for other summer camps that I just felt forced to do and were boring… I put a lot of work into the startup created during BETA Camp, and I do not regret a single second I put into it.” - Kai Lee

You can sign up for the next cohort here.

Thanks for reading!

Until next time,

Ivy

CEO Prequel, BETA Camp, Apollo

Follow my journey on LinkedIn