This past summer I was fortunate to have been selected for LaunchX Entrepreneurship Program at MIT. For me it was a foundational moment– to be able to create, build and then bring to market an idea. At LaunchX, I co-founded a startup “Falcn”, which creates collapsible shape changing cookware using a memory alloy called Nitinol.

LaunchX was one of the best experiences of my life. Several valuable speakers/experts from around the globe presented lessons, creating a wonderfully powerful learning environment. While brainstorming and pitching, other teams always were willing to help and give advice. At LaunchX, innovation is driven by collaboration, rather than competition. The people at LaunchX were unlike any group I’ve met. Everyone was unique, with different passions and skills. Upon arriving at MIT LaunchX I realized that this experience was going to mean so much more than cofounding a startup.

I am a maker/builder and I was really happy to discover that we had the opportunity to use some “maker-spaces” to design and prototype hardware products. LaunchX gives us the opportunity and support to keep exploring and refining our idea throughout the program. By the end of the program, my team had a working prototype. Through the month-long entrepreneurial process at LaunchX, each group was able to pitch their own entrepreneurial idea on par with startups at business schools and esteemed accelerators. Now, we’re continuing our company outside of LaunchX.

Here are a few things I learned at LaunchX –

1. You are never too young to be an entrepreneur.
2. In order to start something new, to be an entrepreneur, you can’t be average. You have to be curious. You have to be passionate.
3. You need to love your business idea in a way that you will be able to talk to anyone about it.
4. Make your passion/fantasies into entrepreneurial realities, despite the opposition you may receive.

Although entrepreneurship is usually seen as a high-risk career path, I am now so much more certain of my future. Because LaunchX taught me that even if I fail over and over again I can keep going if I have enough determination grit. If you were one of those kids who always challenged the status quo, who saw another way of doing things, maybe entrepreneurship is for you. If you like making things, creating things, maybe entrepreneurship is for you. If you want a life of excitement and are willing to put in the work to make it so, maybe entrepreneurship is. You’ll never know unless you take that leap.

This was the biggest adventure of my life to date. It taught me how challenges can be harnessed to create a vision of a better reality.