26 Sep What Turning Ten Teaches Us About Life & Business
by Kalika Yap
At our State of the School, Harvard-Westlake President Rick Commons read a poem that I won’t soon forget: On Turning Ten by Billy Collins.
It is about the tender moment when childhood wonder begins to fade and the seriousness of growing older sets in.
Collins writes:
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.
But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
And then, the turning point:
This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say goodbye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.
Finally, a line that aches with honesty:
It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now… I skin my knees. I bleed.
When Rick Commons read this aloud, it struck me how much this also speaks to entrepreneurship.
Starting a business often feels like being that “wizard” or “prince”—filled with light, believing everything is possible. Then the bumps come: the missed opportunity, the product that doesn’t land, the market that turns.
We skin our knees. We bleed.
And yet—the light is still there.
What entrepreneurs can take from Collins’s words
Keep space for imagination.
The wizard, soldier, and prince remind us of who we once were. That sense of play fuels fresh ideas, even when the world feels heavy.
See the scrapes as lessons.
Each fall on the “sidewalks of life” shows us something. Every failure sharpens our perspective and builds resilience.
Pause and look out the window.
The image of the late afternoon light is an invitation to step back. In business, reflection often reveals insights that numbers alone can’t.
A practice to try
Take five minutes this week. Write down three things you once believed as a child that felt magical. Pick one and bring a small piece of it into your work. Maybe it’s wonder, maybe it’s boldness, maybe it’s simplicity.
Rick Commons’s choice to share this poem reminded us that growing up doesn’t mean losing our light.
As entrepreneurs, our work lives in the balance between imagination and responsibility—between shining and bleeding, between childhood play and adult reality.
If this speaks to you, I’d love to talk more about how coaching can help you bring imagination and wisdom together in your business. You can set up a discovery call here:
On Turning Ten
by Billy Collins
…. At four I was an Arabian wizard.
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.
But now I am mostly at the window watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly against the side of my tree house, and my bicycle never leaned against the garage as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.
This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself, as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say goodbye to my imaginary friends, time to turn the first big number.
It seems only yesterday I used to believe there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life, I skin my knees. I bleed.
DOWNLOADABLE WORKSHEET
Imagination & Scrapes: A Reflection Exercise
This worksheet is inspired by Billy Collins’s poem On Turning Ten and the idea that we carry both our childlike imagination and our adult scars into our work.
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