Extracurriculars are out. Skills are in.

Hello and welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Prequel newsletter!

📝 My name is Ivy — I founded Prequel because I’m passionate about helping kids be successful, both in school and in the real world.

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📬 What to expect: Twice a week, you’ll get actionable insights, inspiring stories, and helpful links from around the web, right in your inbox.

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💡 Stop freaking out about extracurriculars. Here’s how to succeed in life:

Most of the advice out there for kids is geared toward helping them build up an impressive-looking resume. It’s all about amassing as many resume-boosting experiences as they can — but not about the skills that your kid will actually learn from those activities.

What really matters is not how beautifully a package is wrapped, but what’s inside. Your kid could have the best-looking resume in the world, but in the end, it won’t necessarily set them up for success if they haven’t actually learned the right skills.

Now, you might be thinking, “Hold on — as long as it helps my kid get into a good college, it won’t matter!”

And you’re partially right. Because unfortunately, you get all the prestige and validation just by getting into prestigious colleges — not from what you learn there.

And if a product has really good packaging, it will still get purchased. And in the same way, people with really good packaging will be able to get the job, get into the dream school, or get the funding.

But if it’s empty packaging with no substance, eventually, your kid will fail.

Instead of obsessing about how our kids’ resumes look, we should be helping our kids obsess over improving their abilities, learning new skills, and growing as individuals.

More and more, colleges and companies are looking for applicants that stand out. That means they’re not looking for kids who have a huge list of activities on their resume, but who demonstrate depth — a clear passion and purpose that is the through-line in all their activities and pursuits.

What does your kid genuinely care about? And how can you help them go deeper with that interest?

• If they love soccer, they can start a business offering private lessons to younger kids.

• If they love writing novels, they can self-publish a book series.

• If they love AI, they can start a YouTube channel or podcast talking about recent developments.

Most kids feel pressured to be on student government, the debate team, the president of ten clubs, participate in two sports, and help with the theater department’s new play. Instead, have your kids choose one thing they really love, and then have them go BIG with it.

Take a look at Grace Price, who we recently featured in our newsletter. She built a Twitter account all about health education, and just landed a coveted internship with a health startup on the strength of her brand alone — she didn’t even have to apply.

Focusing on a passion and building useful skills with it will help your kid stand out from the crowd and be successful in the long term. What’s going to matter more when it comes time to succeed in life and career they care about? — having a resume with a bunch of surface-level fillers that don’t demonstrate any real interest or depth in anything? Or a resume with a few deep passion projects that demonstrate how your kids really made an impact and achieved results building something amazing?

What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.

🚀 Ivy’s top links

Here’s what I’m reading and sharing this week!

• How to teach your kids investing

• Read my feature in the Meta Work blog on how the future of work is changing

• How to get your kids to love learning

• A simple & free tip to improve your focus while studying

• How video games actually make kids smarter

• How to start a YouTube channel in 2023 (from successful YouTubers)

Thanks for reading!

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