Then we have 40- and 50-year-olds who are saying, "You know what, here is a vision I have had my whole life, and I have just always been held back by fear and by low expectations … so I am actually going to start pursuing this."

The one in particular I will share, which is just kind of neat and is not necessarily like the ultimate example of teens doing hard things, but it is definitely one that we're excited about: There is a young man named Zac Sunderland.  He is attempting to be the youngest person to solo circumnavigate the world -- which means sail around the world in a boat by himself. He is 16 years old. He was born on a boat. He has already logged 15,000 miles at sea, and his parents are meeting him at each stop along the way, but he has gotten tons of media attention.  He will be the youngest person in history to ever do that if he accomplishes it, which he has every support in place to do. 

We actually found out about him because he was wearing a "Do Hard Things" T-shirt. 

CW: Very neat. For the parents who may be reading - you write about your dad's role in sort of jump-starting this whole experience.  Do you have any words for parents on what they could do to encourage their teens to do hard things? 

BH:  Absolutely. The main encouragement I would have for parents, and something our parents did such a good job of, is to definitely challenge us, to give us tools not toys, to provide platforms and opportunities for us to present something, [like] getting us involved in speech and debate competition. Whatever it was that would help give us incentive to really apply ourselves, to stoke passions.

Sometimes [we] get feedback from people saying, "Well, what about parents who have too high expectations?" Everyone knows those parents -- sometimes their children actually break down. In our experience, the problem has not been the high expectations. The problem has been the emphasis on success over faithfulness [to God] ... success in terms of certain grades, certain college, certain kind of job. The expectation leaves no room for failure even when doing the right thing, failing even though you tried your hardest but growing.

If that [failure] is included in the high expectations, we have never seen the kind of problems that people associate with too high expectations.

CW:  So, what is next for you and your brother as you enter the 20-something stage?  Will your mission change?   

 BH:  Our heart is not to get stuck in the teen years. We don't want to be 40 years old and still be, like, teenagers rebelling against low expectations!

We have been really excited because we have had some ideas … that we feel like are the next step, especially based on the feedback we have been getting from the book where young people are saying, "Alright, I am fired up to do hard things. Here are the things I have already started doing, but I don't really feel like I have my holy ambition."  Or "I found my holy ambition, but I don't have the resources, I don't have the connections, I don't know how to actually start."

So, we are planning on putting together a new event that would essentially answer that question and would provide for that need. We would move into the role of facilitating young people who have a vision, who have a passion -- connecting them with the mentors, connecting them with the spiritual and financial venture capitalists, and then just sharing tons and tons of holy ambitions with the ever-growing audience of young people who are looking for holy ambitions to get excited about.  A brief description of the event would be 3 days, 50 speakers, 18 minutes each to give the talk of their lives to 500 of the most dedicated young people in the country.  Each talk would be professionally captured on video, uploaded to a state-of-the art website, and made available for free downloading. 

CW:  Thanks for taking the time to chat. Is there anything else you would like to add for our readers? 

BH:  I think just what you already mentioned … that we're normal. We feel like the worst thing that could happen would be for people to view us or any of the other young people whose stories we share as different -- and that is the natural response, to say, "Oh, they are different. Therefore, I don't have to learn from them. It's just a neat story." Make sure that whatever comes out of this interview is really emphasizing God's ability to use the most unlikely heroes. That is what He did all throughout the Bible, whether it is David, whether it is Mary, the mother of Jesus, whether it is the prophet Jeremiah, the least of Jesse's sons. 

You can visit Brett and Alex's blog and get more information on their conferences and book at www.therebelution.com.

 *Lead photo: Brett is sitting on the left, Alex on the right.