These Kid Inventors Get What Many Grown Up Entrepreneurs Don'tYou shouldn't let failure stand in your way.

ByNina Zipkin

Autodesk

I don't know what you were doing when you were 14, but it probably wasn't signing a licensing deal to get your product into big name retailers such as Barnes and Noble and Target.

But that is the case for Jakob Sperry, who along with six other young inventors recently presented their work at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering as part of Kid Inventor's Day, an event hosted by 3-D design and engineering software maker Autodesk.

Image Credit: Autodesk

Related:6 Ways to Help Your Kid Start a Business and Learn About Life

Sperry is the inventor ofGyRings, a line of fidget toys. Sperry has ADHD, and when he was 12 he came up with the widgets as a way to help him and others focus in the classroom and other social settings.

Eleven-year-old Jordan Reeves is the creator of Project Unicorn, a prosthetic, 3-D printed arm that shoots glitter. Reeves said one of the biggest lessons she's learned from the experience thus far is, "if you don't fail, there is something wrong."

Image Credit: Autodesk

Related:Meet Your Future Boss: The Elementary Schoolers Taking Over YouTube

亚历克西斯·刘易斯可能是一个17岁的高中senior, but she is already a serial inventor. After reading about the 2011 famine in Somalia, she created the Rescue Travois, a simple and inexpensive transportation device to help families travel safely across inhospitable terrain.

Image Credit: Autodesk

She also developed the Emergency Mask (EM) Pod to help reduce the risk of smoke inhalation for first responders and an Inventing 101 syllabus for middle school students. "Invention is intuitive," she says. "It is something that everyone can do. It's human."

Related:How This Teenager Turned Her Childhood Hobby Into a Global Business

A quartet of Brooklyn 17-year-olds, Abichael Michel, Victor Shahov, Caitlin Tsang and Jordan Pericles, created an interactive mirror called I Motivate You (IMU).

Image Credit: Autodesk

A deceptively simple looking device assembled from an LCD display, a mirror, an ultrasonic sensor and 3-D printed case, when the user looks into the mirror, the closer they get, the more affirming and positive messages they see in front of them. The team had a small prototype, but they said they wanted to see IMU installed in community spaces such as school lobbies.

Related:11 Successful Kid Entrepreneurs Keeping Their Eyes on the Prize

Sarah O'Rourke, Autodesk's youth audience strategist, says that these young inventors understand what so many adults forget about innovation -- not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

"It's important to try and try to fail," O'Rourke toldEntreprenuer. "If you don't, you never know. Things don't have to be perfect. If something isn't innate, people often give up. Push down those shackles. The key part is just to keep trying."

Nina Zipkin

Entrepreneur Staff

Staff Writer. Covers leadership, media, technology and culture.

Nina Zipkin is a staff writer at Entrepreneur.com. She frequently covers leadership, media, tech, startups, culture and workplace trends.

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Business News

'Typically Gone Within a Few Hours': This $1,900 Costco Product Is Flying Off Shelves

Costco only offers the exclusive product online to members.

Business News

凯蒂·佩里是Fighting the Founder of 1-800-Flowers for a $15 Million California Mansion He Doesn't Want to Sell Her

The eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom estate sits on nearly nine acres in the Santa Ynez foothills in Montecito.

Growing a Business

Want to Sound Smarter? This Stanford Professor's Simple 3-Point Technique Will Help

With a little structure, you can impress audiences with your ad-libbing all day.

Business News

A Guy Named "Baby Al Capone" Pulled Off a $24 Million Crypto Heist

On this week's episode of "Dirty Money," learn the story of a massive scam pulled off by some gamer buddies who turned very unfriendly when the heat turned up.

Business News

Tech CEO, 26, Found Dead in Suspected Murder

Pava LaPere founded EcoMap Technologies in December 2018.