Jacob Hansen lives in Bountiful, Utah, and is a full-time student at Brigham Young University in Provo. He is currently working toward a degree in Entrepreneurship and he plans to continue on to Law School in the near future. He is the CEO and co-founder of Inspiration Lamp Post, an organization with a website and blog meant to motivate and inspire excellence. He is a talented writer and public speaker with a fair-sized audience on his website. While his occupations are great and commendable, the most extraordinary thing about him is probably the fact that he is seventeen years old.
From early childhood, education has been an important part of Jacob’s life. He feels that the nature of his childhood education has been a great blessing and advantage “custom built to fit [his] needs.” He grew up under the private tutelage of his parents, a situation commonly known as home-school.
“From playing bagpipes to reading novels to building forts in my backyard, I was given freedom to follow my heart,” he says. Because of that freedom, Jacob has always been passionate about education and finding his purpose. He attended several weekly classes at a nearby private school for four years, then he took personal charge of his education and became involved with a close-knit peer-support group at the age of fifteen. He relates, “I firmly believe that everyone has a unique purpose to live here on earth, and at that time I was highly determined to discover my own.” He received advice, studied, and reflected, and eventually decided that college attendance would be the most beneficial decision for his future.
Having no desire to wait four to five more years for that, Jacob started preparing for and applying to various colleges. In the fall of 2015, at sixteen years old, he began attending BYU as a full time student with his sights set on law school. “People often ask me how I was able to get to college at the early age that I did and how I manage to do so well while I’m there,” he says. “I can only speak from my own experience, but I believe that academic success is not determined nearly as much by your own knowledge as by your attitude towards learning and your mastery of basic study skills.”
Hard work and a passion for learning has carried Jacob far when it comes to success and living up to his potential. He states, “I think the purpose of education should be to enable one to live his/her purpose. While I will never stop learning, I plan on continuing to attend formal schooling only as long as I need the opportunities and information best presented in that environment.”
Jacob understands that education doesn’t only happen in the classroom, and he finds learning in any situation. One aspect of his education has been a fondness for writing. “I have always enjoyed writing,” Jacob says, “and after finding success in a national writing competition, Celine Wardrop (my friend and writing buddy) and I decided it was time that we start sharing our ideas with the world. We named our joint blog Inspiration Lamp Post.”
Inspiration Lamp Post started out with two teens who just wanted to share their ideas with the world. But with Jacob Hansen, “just” doesn’t cut it. He continues, “In the spring of 2015, an idea was sparked inside each of us. We looked at the world and saw a society of teenagers who were tragically failing to live up to their potential, and so as 16-year-olds we resolved to do something about it. Shortly thereafter, a movement was born.”
The mission statement of Inspiration Lamp Post says, “Our mission is to create a culture of excellence among teenagers.” Inspiration Lamp Post has already begun to fulfill that goal. Teens have been inspired and motivated and lives have been blessed and enhanced because of this organization.
How is it possible for Jacob to do everything he is doing and has done without any problems? It’s not. Just like anyone else, Jacob has trials. He says, “I have often thought that things like inexperience and a lack of resources were legitimate obstacles in my life, and they have surely made things more difficult. But more than anything, the number-one greatest challenge that I have faced is the belief that I cannot do what I dream.”
A lot of people tend to be held back by feelings like this, but not Jacob. He goes on to say, “This belief has killed more of my success than a thousand years of failure ever could, and so I fight it every day. Every day, sometimes hourly, I remind myself that I am capable of enormous goodness. That I was BORN FOR GREATNESS. That I CAN.”
Jacob recognizes that he is not the only one who got him where he is right now. He says, “My success in all my endeavors I attribute, above all, to God and the personal relationship I have with Him.”
Jacob trusts that God is behind everything, but he still passionately believes in hard work. “If there is one thing I have learned, it is that when you take action, doors will open.”
As incredibly amazing as he is, Jacob isn’t the only one who can do great things. You, like Jacob, have a mission in this life. You possess the potential and capability to fulfill it. You can push past the feelings of doubt and inadequacy.
"Never consider your age to be a limitation, because it isn't. Ignorance, fear, and pride are limitations, but fortunately none of those qualities are intrinsically attached to being young. So stop feeling discouraged and go hunt down success—the path to changing the world is a long one, and there is no better time to start than today."
~Jacob Hansen
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