Summary: <a href="http://www.gayleallen.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Blog-Post-Jihad-Kawas.png"></a><a href="http://www.jihadkawas.com/" target="_blank">Jihad Kawas</a> started his company, <a href="http://www.saily.co/">Saily</a>, 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 <a href="http://thielfellowship.org/">Thiel Fellow</a> who never attended college. Along the way, he was awarded a <a href="http://www.forbes.com/under30/">Forbes 30 Under 30 Scholarship,</a> took first place at an <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MITEnterpriseForumPanArabRegion/posts/305311372922894">MIT Social Innovation Camp</a>, and has been a <a href="http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Why-School-Is-Not-Ready-For-Us">TEDx Talk</a> speaker.<br> This week, in a special edition of <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/curious-minds-innovation-inspiration/id1049183266?mt=2">Curious Minds</a>, 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 <a href="http://thielfellowship.org/">Thiel Fellowship</a>, a program founded in 2011 by <a href="http://www.forbes.com/profile/peter-thiel/">Peter Thiel</a> to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs.<br> In this episode you will learn:<br> <br> how building things as a young person led him to where he is today<br> why parents need to let their children build real, meaningful things<br> his beliefs regarding the impact of parents, families, and schools on young people <br> ways even cutting-edge schools have rules and policies that constrain<br> how he viewed school as something to get through in order to pursue his passion<br> the power of having to develop a pitch to persuade and convince<br> the funny way he found out about the Thiel Fellows program<br> what it is like to be an 18-year-old Thiel Fellow and company founder<br> how the success and accomplishments of his peers spur him on<br> how he spends his time<br> about the constant battle he faces with uncertainty and doubt<br> about his advice for young people<br> what he is curious about today<br> <br> Links to Topics Mentioned in this Podcast<br> <a href="https://www.google.com/">Google</a><br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharing_economy">Sharing economy </a><br> <a href="https://www.airbnb.com/">Airbnb</a><br> <a href="https://www.uber.com/">Uber</a><br> <a href="https://www.taskrabbit.com/">TaskRabbit</a><br> <a href="http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning">Project-based Learning</a><br> <a href="https://developer.apple.com/wwdc/">Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC)</a><br> <a href="http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Why-School-Is-Not-Ready-For-Us">TEDx Talk by Jihad Kawas</a><br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4">iPhone 4</a><br> <a href="http://www.saily.co/">Saily</a><br> <a href="https://www.craigslist.org/about/sites">Craigslist</a><br> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/?hl=en">Instagram</a><br> <a href="https://www.flickr.com/">Flickr</a><br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_(TV_series)">Silicon Valley TV show</a><br> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel">Peter Thiel</a><br> If you enjoyed the podcast, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Steindl-Rast">please rate and review it on iTunes.</a> For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/curious-minds-innovation-inspiration/id1049183266?mt=2">subscribe</a>. Thanks for listening!<br> Thank you to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarknowlin">Clark Nowlin</a> and his sound engineering team at <a href="http://www."></a>
