Founder and CEO, Fiftysix Creations
Taj Pabari is an 18-year-old inventor and social entrepreneur passionate about inspiring children to discover and embrace creativity through technology and innovation.
In 2014, Taj founded Fiftysix Creations, an organisation that teaches young people about computer science, creativity and entrepreneurship.
Fiftysix Creations and its partners have educated more than 100,000 students internationally.
Download video
Video transcript
Taj Pabari
CEO, Fiftysix Creations
2017 Queensland Young Australian of the Year
Technology has really changed the way we live where we are able to connect with people from different countries with the click of a button.
I counted down the days when I was in Grade 3 until I got my first computer in Grade 4. I kind of decided that, you know what, I want to have a life outside the classroom as well. I want to explore the world, rather than merely consume it and …
I started my first business at the age of 11, which was a tech blog for kids by kids. We were getting over 100 000 hits per day and $10 per day from advertisements.
At the time also I hated public speaking, I hated talking in public, and as one teacher said, hey you’re never going to be successful unless you learn how to speak, unless you have those soft skills — skills that we believe are so fundamental to growth and development in our innovation economy, and …
I went to this seminar, set some great goals and the result was Fiftysix Creations, with a goal of teaching young people to create the world we live in rather than merely consuming it.
Our generation will be the generation battling the challenges of tomorrow. We’re the generation being trained in jobs that will be radically changed and replaced by automation.
One of the biggest skills that I advocate is enterprising skills, getting young people communicating, public speaking, negotiating. I believe these are skills that just won’t be able to be replicated by a machine, yet. Skills that really can’t be trained in an office sort of environment, but really have to be learnt through interacting, learning through experimentation.
Really that’s what we need to be teaching our young people and I think the opportunities in our 21st century innovation economy really are quite endless for young people, regardless of your age, demographic postcode, you just need to start.
- Last updated:
- 16 January 2019
