The Equation I Wish I’d Known at 16

Every exam season, thousands of teenagers (this year, including mine) open envelopes or emails that feel like verdicts on their future.

Grades matter, but they’re not the whole story.

I share this equation with students in my lectures at my children’s school, but I think it applies to all of us:

Success = Energy × Ability × Community

Energy

The most underrated multiplier. Success doesn’t come from how many hours you put in, but from the quality of energy you bring to those hours.

Four hours of real focus beats forty of faffing. Energy is mental, physical, values-led and purpose-driven.

Ability

Yes, exam grades sit here. But they’re only one brick in the wall.

Ability is also how you problem-solve, how you influence, how you adapt, how you lead, how you create. Some strengths are academic, others technical, others rooted in exceptional EQ.

The question isn’t “Am I smart?” but “How am I smart?” – and you stack your smarts into something bespoke to you.

Community

Your environment supercharges or strangles your potential.

It’s not just who you spend time with. It’s who you follow, the information you absorb, the TikToks, the podcasts, the voices in your head every day. Those inputs quietly set your standards. They either lift you higher or pull you down. Control your community, or it will control you.

That’s the equation I wish I’d known at 16.

Grades matter. They prove part of your ability. But without energy, they exhaust you; without community, they limit you. With all three together, they accelerate you.

No exam result has ever defined a life – but how you fuel yourself, what you build, and who (and what) you let shape you just might.