By Natalie Clarkson, Content Executive, @NatalieJosh October 16, 2014

This weekend, teenagers took over Indigo at The O2 for TEDxTeen, a day of inspirational talks from a range of remarkable young people.

Although the speakers were young – ‘the first generation younger than the internet’ as the programme put it – they had some very valuable things to share. Here are just five lessons that entrepreneurs could learn from these young people.

1. Change the way you think about challenges

One of the speakers on the day was David Saddington, who has advised the UK government on how they should teach climate change in schools. He spoke about how he’d got it wrong about climate change – he’d focused on the scientific side of the problem, educating people on the processes behind what was happening to the earth.

But, once he changed the way he thought about the challenge it made greater sense and made the problem more relevant.

“I was wrong about education on climate change,” David admitted. “We should care less about the science. We have made it an abstract theory that we are separated from.

“We should stop shouting about the science and educate about how it will affect us. I don’t care about climate change, I care about the social, financial and security impact it will have on me.”

2. Change the way you deal with problems

Ashima Shiraishi might only be 13 but she is also the second female ever to complete a V14 graded rock climb. At TEDxTeen she explained about her approach to complete the climb in Rocklands, South Africa.

The way that she dealt with the toughest climb of her life was by breaking it into pieces, she said.

“By breaking it into sections I could work out if I was capable of doing all the sections.

“99% of climbing is falling,” she explained. “Success is only one percent. But it’s so worth it in the end.”

But the real key to Ashima’s success was a change in mindset.

As she said, “The problem is never going to change, but you can manage the problem differently.”

3. Refuse to see disadvantage

For someone who wears prosthetics to stand on a stage in front of hundreds of people and declare that they refuse to see disadvantage is pretty powerful. And that is exactly what Patrick Kane, who wears a prosthetic leg and has a ‘bionic’ i-Limb Pulse hand, did.

He told the story of how, when he was just nine months old, he contracted meningococcal septicaemia that led to him losing his right leg below the knee, all the fingers on his left hand and the second and third digits on his right hand. But despite that, Patrick has not let his physical disabilities become a disadvantage to him and has in fact made it his mission to be bionic.

And he left the audience with a pretty epic challenge: “There are opportunities to be seized by each and every one of you and the reason people don’t is they are afraid of failing.”

4. Competition is healthy

Erik Finman admitted to ‘optimistically’ being a C-grade student. He also admitted to being competitive with his brother. “As brothers are.”

But perhaps his brother should have been more competitive when he told Erik about Bitcoin. The 15-year-old invested $1,000 into the online currency in 2012 and sold his investment a year later for $100,000.

Using his profit, Erik founded an online tutoring service, which employs more than 20 people and has over 2,000 users.

There's nothing that motivates in quite the same way as a bit of sibling rivalry.

5. Age doesn’t matter

Between the ages of 15 and 17, Josh Valman was contracted to consult some of the world’s largest manufacturing companies on supply chain and engineering.

But when the work he was doing attracted some media attention, the companies he was working for realised his age and due to legalities they could no longer employ him.

“You’re not old enough to have tried to qualify for this job,” he was told.

But he didn’t let that stop him. When he left school, he set up a new business, printed 250 cards and got to work. Six months later, his business was worth £1 million.

Read full article HERE:
http://www.virgin.com/entrepreneur/five-lessons-for-entrepreneurs-from-tedxteen