Alex Koren had never considered dropping out of college. A successful high school student, he headed to Johns Hopkins University and was class president in his first year. Furthermore, that summer, Alex headed to a high-powered summer internship at Intel, seemingly the perfect opportunity for an undergraduate engineering major.

Then something happened. While working at Intel, Alex organized a hackathon that led to his first company, Hyv, which focused on solving big problems with data. The engagement and exhilaration that he felt led him to found the company Chrg, with the goal of using everyday outlets and chargers in service of electric vehicles. Not long after that, Alex dropped out of college to accept 2014 Thiel Fellow.

This week, in a special edition of Curious Minds, 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 to them. Each is either a current or past recipient of a Thiel Fellowship, a program founded in 2011 by Peter Thiel to encourage young people to sidestep college and a traditional life path, in order to chart their own course as entrepreneurs.

In this episode you will hear Alex talk about:

what he learned about failure
how pursuing work that mattered meant doing something that shocked even him
how to create communities for your passions
the difference between a life of extrinsic versus intrinsic motivation
the importance of living with uncertainty as you pursue your goals
the power of surrounding yourself with passionate people
our responsibility to make things relevant for ourselves
the reasons that we lose our creativity
his attraction to what tomorrow holds

Episode Links

Interroga Omnia

If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate and review it on iTunes. For automatic delivery of new episodes, be sure to subscribe. Thanks for listening!

CM 011: Thiel Fellow Alex Koren on Learning to Fail

Curious Minds at Work

CM 011: Thiel Fellow Alex Koren on Learning to Fail