My friends Stacey and Jared published a book today called 2 Billion Under 20. It was my pleasure to write this foreword to the book:

“They all laughed at Fulton and his steamboat - Hershey and his chocolate bar, 

Ford and his Lizzie kept the laughers busy – that’s how people are”

                -George & Ira Gershwin, They All Laughed

History shows that innovators can’t expect to be popular—at least not at first, and often not ever. That’s the price of doing new things in a world in which so much of what people do is to repeat what has been done before. A certain class of innovator—young people—must be especially prepared to steel themselves against the scoffing and skepticism they’re sure to suffer as they try to do anything new. The world has given up expecting new things from kids—why else would we lock them up in schools and prescribe to each one the same homogenous (and homogenizing) curriculum for years on end?

But sometimes the tracked path doesn’t take. Now more than ever, young people are realizing that the future is theirs to create, not something that will simply happen to them. In 2 Billion Under 20 you’ll meet 75 remarkable individuals who have learned that it’s never too early to do something bold. These trailblazers have plenty in common—each is self-taught in one way or another, and not one has yet celebrated a 21st birthday. But even more remarkable is just how diverse they are: from programmers, designers, and writers to race car drivers, Olympians, and EMTs, their achievements dazzle—like flying machines in a world used to bicycles and buggies.

If you type “Millennials are ” into Google’s search bar, the autocomplete feature suggests “doomed”. But the crowd’s got this one wrong. This book shows what ambitious young people can get done, if only we believe in them. Actually, scratch that: they don’t need our faith. Perhaps all that’s required is that we get out of their way. 

Get a copy here.