Thomas Suarez: The Next Steve Jobs in the Making?

I listen to this kid talk and I couldn't help but wish I was as confident and sure of myself when I was 12.

This 6th grader from Los Angeles gave a talk about "Transforming Learning" last October 22 at the TEDxManhattanBeach showcasing his two apps, the Earth Fortune and the Bustin Jieber. He even elicited some laughs from the audience when he introduced his favorite and most successful app, the Bustin Jieber.

Thomas Suarez at the TEDxManhattan

Thomas Suarez, 12 years old, might be the next Steve Jobs in the making. Not a big surprise if it happens because Steve Jobs is in fact his inspiration. He holds his iPad, conquered the stage and talks about his experiences and what he wants.

He'd "like to create more apps, more games, and working with a third-party company to make an app. I'd like to get into Android programming and development. And I'd like to continue my app club and find other ways to share knowledge with others."     

He is very charismatic, he knows how to spot for opportunities, how to market his ideas and he is quite a visionary too. He was able to convince his parents to pay the $99 fee so he can put his app in the Apple Store. A lot of his friends at school disliked Justin Bieber then he came up with Bustin Jieber. He asks the right questions and say the wisest things.

Let's be honest. He was right on when he said, "These days, students usually know a little bit more than teachers...." The audience laughs of course. He added, "with the technology. So...Sorry." And more laughs.

In today's age, young talents and precocious minds will be technologies' next generation revolutionaries. We need to nurture them. We need to provide avenues for these young minds where they can grow and do what they want. He was right. If you want to learn soccer, you join a soccer team. If you want to play the violin then get into a violin class. But if you want to make apps, where do you go?  

This is the question that parents, teachers, schools should provide an answer to.

Apple's "Think Different" Campaign, 1997 Ad

"Here's to the crazy ones.The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do."

The one-minute commercial featured black and white video footage of significant historical people of the past which are mostly Steve Jobs' heroes. They include Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright, and Picasso.