The Adults Behind Confident Kids: Why Saying Yes Builds Young Leaders

Dorian was getting ready to launch his third annual birthday cake fundraiser, and this year Dollar Tree participated for the first time.

Before the campaign had even officially started, one of his former teachers saw the flyer, grabbed a shopping cart and filled it with donations.

The store manager later told me that experience and how impressed he was by Dorian’s drive and motivation at just 13.

I told him, “It’s because of people like you who say yes and open the door for him.”

I don’t think he realized how much he is part of the story.

We tend to notice the young person who has the confidence to walk into a business, share an idea or ask for support. What we don’t always see are all the people who made that confidence possible.

I’ve watched that happen with Dorian for years.

A teacher takes his idea seriously. A business gives him a chance. Someone makes an introduction or gives him a seat at a table where he gets to learn how to hold his own.

None of those things seem particularly remarkable in the moment.

But they add up.

That’s one of the lessons behind The D-Max Effect that I keep coming back to: young people need adults who are willing to open doors without walking through those doors for them.

I can make an introduction. Dorian still has to have the conversation.

I can help him think through an idea. He still has to explain why it matters.

A business can give him an opportunity. He still has to show up and follow through.

That space between opportunity and ownership is where so much growth happens.

The manager at Dollar Tree thought he was helping with a birthday cake fundraiser.

He was. but he was also becoming one of the people in Dorian’s life who showed him that a 13-year-old with an idea is worth listening to.

Kids remember that and it stays with them much longer than we realize.

So if you’ve ever said yes to a kid with an idea, thank you.

You may be a much bigger part of their story than you know.