Visiting CDL at 15: A Flash to My Future

Why wait to grow up when you could change the world now?

“Where do I really belong?”

As a 15-year-old, it’s almost expected of me to know where I want to spend the next 5 years of my life. I’m supposed to know which university I want to go to, which career path I’m looking to pursue, what field I’m going to make breakthroughs in.

Ever since what seems like the dawn of time itself, I’ve always bombarded myself with that one question, all because of the same problem.

I have no clue.

Until now, it’s just been “do what you like doing”, and so I did a little bit of everything. Machine learning, Astrophysics, Art, Debate, Business, you name it, chances are I’ve tried it.

Reid Hoffman says, “The best way to learn rapidly and keep pace with change is seeking one-on-one conversations with experts, rather than relying on formal classes.”

So, naturally, I realized I needed more external data points if I were to make a satisfying decision. After all, in order to realize that some path wasn’t built for me, I should see it at it’s best.

That’s when I reached out to Toronto’s very own Creative Destruction Lab.

The Creative Destruction Lab is a program for seed-stage, science-based start-ups that have the potential to scale into massive companies. Launched in 2012, the program employs an objectives-based mentoring process with the goal of maximizing equity value creation. Its slogan is “Build Something Massive.”

Pretty cool, right?

Do you know what was even cooler? I got the opportunity to attend one of their sessions and shadow Tomi Poutanen, the cofounder of Layer 6 AI and Sam Molyneux, the cofounder of Meta.

I went from being your sorta-average 15-year-old to someone connected to insanely smart and brilliant CEOs and Founders of AI-based companies.

Crazy stuff.

The day was filled with following Tomi as he met the founders and teams for startups and watched them pitch their idea and progress while giving them feedback. It also consisted of hearing some brutal feedback, and a lot of surprising decisions.

I think that if there was one thing I learned from this unique experience was the advantage of being good at many things. The advantage of being a polymath.

There were so many startups that I found were really theoretically interesting. There were so many science-based companies that I was very intrigued by, even economics-based and education-based companies that enthralled me.

But, most times, they didn’t impress Tomi as much. When in break periods, listening to the conversation between Sam and Tomi, the flaws in the companies were much more apparent to me.

I learned that it was one thing to be a good scientist and another to be a good businessperson, and vice-versa.

When you make yourself go very deep into a field, it makes it hard for you to see your world through another lens. It sticks with you.

When a scientist tries to go into business or a businessperson tries going into science, it gets tricky. Sometimes, founders don’t understand this and think they are fully competent by themselves. While sometimes this may work, it’s a good idea to have more than one perspective to help your business really flourish.

Aside from that, there was one personal yet profound thing that I took away from this experience.

I didn’t have to really “choose” any field to go into. It was more to do with what background would help me accelerate the others. The advantage of being good at a lot of things is golden, especially in the real world. It’s so important to have both a breadth and depth of knowledge. Don’t restrict yourself to one thing, knowledge never hurts.

So, as I exited the session carrying a huge smile plastered on my face, it was then that I realized I finally knew where I belonged.

“I belong here.”