Click Your Fortune #2: Advice for your 16-year-old self - John Werner

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Click Your Fortune is an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure style series that literally feeds questions from students to knowledgeable experts around the world. This intro video explains it all: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/click-your-fortune-episode-2

This episode features the professionals listed below answering dozens of questions submitted by students from all over the world. Got a burning question? A hero you'd like to see interviewed? A career you would like to see explored? Suggest and vote up ideas for future click your fortune videos here: https://community.ed.ted.com/teded/topics/suggest_questions_careers_and_people_for_the_next_click_your_fortune_episode

Adital Ela: Sustainability Designer
Sandra Aamodt: Neuroscientist; Author
John Werner: Leadership Team, Citizen Schools; Research Scientist, MIT
Alessandro Centrone: Vice President of Sales & Distribution, Steelcase Inc.

What advice would you give to your 16-year-old self?

When someone challenges you or a group,

sometimes know when not to take the challenge on,

like I'm going to lose, that's going to suck,

but sometimes know when to take the challenge on.

In my freshman year in college,

a professor said, "If no one takes the final exam,

everyone will get an A.

But if one person takes it,

everyone in the class will get a double F, get a zero,

and the whole class will fail."

And for ten years, he had been doing this challenge.

And this was most popular class in college,

and there were students of all years,

two valedictorians from their respective classes were in there.

And as a freshman, I didn't know any better.

I just said, "Alright, I'm going to organize this,"

and I helped everyone not to take the exam.

We all got A's,

and then I became infamous for organizing this.

And so, a part of the reason why I'm an organizer

at the media lab,

in the domain of education,

was probably because of that experience.

So, what I would say to myself

or any 16-year-old,

that if someone challenges you,

know when to take it on

and take it on big.

And if you win and it's epic,

that becomes part of who you are,

part of how people see you,

and part of how you approach doing future things.

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