Cameron HeroldFounder of the COO Alliance & Invest In Your Leaders Training

Stop Forcing Kids to Fit In

25 Mar 2026 · 1 min

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Cameron Herold argues schools waste time fixing kids' weaknesses instead of building their strengths. He won a speaking contest in second grade but was forced into French tutoring, then became MIT's top-rated lecturer. The fix: coach natural talents, especially entrepreneurial ones, instead of pushing everyone toward law and medicine.

Chapters

Kids, when we grow up, have dreams. And we have passions, and we have visions, and somehow we get those things crushed. And we get told that we need to study harder, or be more focused, or get a tutor. And my parents got me a tutor in French, and I still suck in French. 2 years ago, I was the highest-rated lecturer at MIT's Entrepreneurial Master's Program, and it was a speaking event in front of groups of entrepreneurs from around the world. When I was in grade 2, I won a citywide speaking competition. But nobody had ever said, hey, this kid's a good speaker. He can't focus, but he loves walking around and getting people energized. No one has said, get him a coach in speaking. They said, get me a tutor in what I suck at. Those kids show these traits, and we need to start looking for them. I think we should be raising kids to be entrepreneurs instead of lawyers. And unfortunately, the school system is grooming this world to say, hey, let's be a lawyer, let's be a doctor. And we're missing that opportunity because no one ever says, hey, be an entrepreneur.