Genius Network Recap: Building the Next Generation of Founders

My name is Joe Polish. I'm the founder of Genius Network and Genius Youth for the young people of our entrepreneurs. We are completing our very first year of Genius Youth because we want to build a foundation for ambitious entrepreneurs. What we're doing today and tomorrow in Reno, Nevada, in Lake Tahoe area, is one of our Genius Network members. Tom Powell, who's awesome, has hosted an event for all of our Genius Youth members.

One of the things that excites me most about the youth in general is wherever they come from in their background. So we have some kids that have chosen that education is not their pathway, and we have some kids that are graduating from the top universities in the world. And in both cases, they're learning from founders that have that same experience. Some people have doctorates and others have the. The school of hard knocks. But what is shared in those passions, generally, a founder is an eager learner. And so what it shows for the youth that have come up here is that there's so many different pathways. There's no right or wrong pathway to take. But in every single pathway, you need to be an eager learner, and you need to surround yourself with the mentors and the leaders that can help guide you and help see around the corners that you're not seeing at this point. So I invited them up to our home and said, why don't you come ski our mountain? And, of course, one of the challenges is we haven't had any snow so far this year. So we figured out other things to do, such as taking them to Tesla, up to the mines in Virginia City. We're going to do a shark tank. We're taking them up to the hills, and a hike at Tahoe at Chickadee Ridge, and mostly engaging with the youth about where they can look at the future. That's not just about AI.

I really enjoyed the itinerary and the intention behind every activity that Tom's team put together and the Genius Youth team put together. We all kind of were curious because they seemed out of the blue, but as we went and went through each activity, they kind of had this really great storyline. For example, yesterday we went to Tesla, and then we went to Color Mine, and we kind of were like, that's a really interesting mix. Like, we're not really sure what the connection is. But then we got on the bus, they made a really amazing kind of talk where they were like, the beginning of the day, you see the new iteration of exploding business and success. And the second half of the day, you got to see kind of a previous earlier explosion of business and success and, you know, they're so vastly different, but having that similarity and that pairing was really, really fascinating to look on retrospectively. So I just really love the intention behind every single event we've done and intention of development and improvement in ways that we wouldn't even expect.

I think this Genius Youth trip in Tahoe taught me a lot about how people can find ways to make money in tight places. Even things about going to the mines up in Virginia City where these people came in and bought a mine that was believed to be empty and had nothing left to strip from it. And they ended up having stumbling upon the biggest production mine in the world at the time. Those kinds of things show you that there's, you know, there's a lot of things to be had by just having some guts and going out and doing something that you believe in today.

We were on a made up Shark Tank kind of thing, and we essentially pitched our ideas to judges that have been in the business world for a very long time. And we got to see firsthand their exact feedback for what we do. I think I had to step out a little bit of my comfort zone. I'm comfortable talking to people, but in front of a large group of people on an idea that we came up with an hour ago. It was nerve wracking, but that was my favorite part of everything.

So I feel like this is something I say after every single trip. It's the opportunity to get to see these people. It is unlike anything I've ever experienced anywhere else. The closest thing I can say is like summer camp. How you go away for a few weeks over the summer, you meet these people, you become incredibly close with them, then you go back to your life, and then the next summer you come back and you run up immediately, see them and give them a hug. These are some of the closest people in my life, and some of them I've talked to for a combined, like, six days. This is such an incredible organization as Genius Network, and getting the opportunity to have some level of that connection and being able to grow as a person at this stage of life is incredible. So this has been an extraordinary experience that I am beyond thankful for.

If you're thinking about joining Genius Youth, I would think about whether or not you want to be a part of what the future looks like. The people that you see in these rooms, especially the people that are part of Genius Network and not just Genius Youth, can teach you a lot about what it means to be on the forefront of something. And the kids in genius youth are doing the same. There's multiple people in genius youth that run their own companies, that have visions for what they want to build. And again, these are the kinds of people that you want to be surrounding yourself with at this age. These are the people that turn you into a go getter instead of somebody that watches the next person do what you thought should be done.

I always want to create something that's memorable. When you can see the enthusiasm, inspiration is perishable. And so when you inspire someone, it's great to see them really do something with it. And we want to keep that fire lit. And what I'm realizing more and more is that these young people, ingenious youth, they really are the future.