"Students are seeing the world for the first
time. They have a chronic case of 'Beginner's
Mind.' These same students are programmed
to identify problems and find solutions—and
many of them are quite good at it."
"Students are seeing the
world for the first time. They
have a chronic case of
'Beginner's Mind.' These
same students are programmed to identify problems and find solutions—and many of them are quite good at it."
My name is Max. I'm a student (to many, a child) from Long Island, New York.
When I was little, I had a lot of ideas. They always aimed to solve a problem, like any good idea: from my more ambitious solutions like being able to transfer knowledge directly from one person's brain to another through a tube to my more simple resolutions like splitting the bus stop in two—an extra thirty seconds for the bus but saving me a ten-minute walk in the cold.
I kept most of these thoughts to myself. But every now and then, I'd share one. The habitual adult response was almost always the same: "Wow! What a great idea, Max? You should try that one day!" Followed by the mundane, "So, have you learned multiplication yet in school? That's going to be hard!"
Since then, I've learned two things:
- When you get older, the calculator does the multiplication for you.
- Why 'one day?'
While I love to talk about math, it's that second one I'm going to focus on here.
Students are seeing the world for the first time. They have a chronic case of 'Beginner's Mind.' These same students are programmed to identify problems and find solutions—and many of them are quite good at it.
So if you're a student with a brilliant idea, my question is: Why wait?
No greatness has ever come from waiting. So don't.
We get it; it's scary! We're students too. I still remember the time I told my parents about my first real venture. Not a little idea I had in passing in the car that I would mention to drum up conversation and then let float into the abyss, but something real. I hovered around my family in the den for hours. I was so nervous they asked me if I was okay. Eventually, I just came out and said it: "I want to try something crazy!"
Their response was underwhelming, honestly: "Great. Go for it! Let us know if you need any help." Just like that, I was on my way.
Honestly, it's still a little awkward when my "work" comes up, and people say, "Oh, where do you work?" There's no simple answer. The technical response would be that I work in my bedroom sitting at my computer for about ten hours per day. In contrast, any mention of what we actually do here leads to a tsunami of questions that, for most people, would require a miniature lesson in economics to understand adequately. But whenever I have to explain Elev Labs to someone new, it gets a little bit easier than it was the last time.
If you're ambitious and have an idea you think is unique, go for it. There's no reason not to.
What we've built here at Elev Labs is something truly remarkable and genuinely unique. If you're the type of person that thought of driving people home from parties before Uber was a thing, I have some bad news: you could have owned Uber right now. With just a bit of help from our Product and Bootstrapping Labs, it could have been you.
Don't sleep on another opportunity. Don't waste another second.
Show us your vision,
and let's change the world.
Max Coppola is a high school senior based out of Long Island, NY. He is one of the Co-founders of Elev Labs.
My name is Max. I'm a student (to many, a child) from Long Island, New York.
When I was little, I had a lot of ideas. They always aimed to solve a problem, like any good idea: from my more ambitious solutions like being able to transfer knowledge directly from one person's brain to another through a tube to my more simple resolutions like splitting the bus stop in two—an extra thirty seconds for the bus but saving me a ten-minute walk in the cold.
I kept most of these thoughts to myself. But every now and then, I'd share one. The habitual adult response was almost always the same: "Wow! What a great idea, Max? You should try that one day!" Followed by the mundane, "So, have you learned multiplication yet in school? That's going to be hard!"
Since then, I've learned two things:
- When you get older, the calculator does the multiplication for you.
- Why 'one day?'
While I love to talk about math, it's that second one I'm going to focus on here.
Students are seeing the world for the first time. They have a chronic case of 'Beginner's Mind.' These same students are programmed to identify problems and find solutions—and many of them are quite good at it.
So if you're a student with a brilliant idea, my question is: Why wait?
No greatness has ever come from waiting. So don't.
We get it; it's scary! We're students too. I still remember the time I told my parents about my first real venture. Not a little idea I had in passing in the car that I would mention to drum up conversation and then let float into the abyss, but something real. I hovered around my family in the den for hours. I was so nervous they asked me if I was okay. Eventually, I just came out and said it: "I want to try something crazy!"
Their response was underwhelming, honestly: "Great. Go for it! Let us know if you need any help." Just like that, I was on my way.
Honestly, it's still a little awkward when my "work" comes up, and people say, "Oh, where do you work?" There's no simple answer. The technical response would be that I work in my bedroom sitting at my computer for about ten hours per day. In contrast, any mention of what we actually do here leads to a tsunami of questions that, for most people, would require a miniature lesson in economics to understand adequately. But whenever I have to explain Elev Labs to someone new, it gets a little bit easier than it was the last time.
If you're ambitious and have an idea you think is unique, go for it. There's no reason not to.
What we've built here at Elev Labs is something truly remarkable and genuinely unique. If you're the type of person that thought of driving people home from parties before Uber was a thing, I have some bad news: you could have owned Uber right now. With just a bit of help from our Product and Bootstrapping Labs, it could have been you.
Don't sleep on another opportunity. Don't waste another second.
Show us your vision,
and let's change the world.
Max Coppola is a high school senior based out of Long Island, NY. He is one of the Co-founders of Elev Labs.