The story behind Supercool School ( An open letter to the world )

Sometimes it is very hard for us to see the reason behind certain events in our life. Most of the time this missing understanding happens to take place when we have to face difficulties and problems.
But for those of us who have the luck to look back and see a connection between events, to sense the purpose behind the destiny of our past and to get a feeling for what it was meant for - it is like a rebirth into a new life - suddenly everything make sense.

Heavy words from a 24-year old nobody. But they are the truth - at least from my point of view. If you want to know the true story "behind" Supercool School - I can only tell it in a very personal way.

From the very beginning, I experienced education as a tool of punishment and a way of building boundaries. I hated school. I hated learning and I hated books. But I loved TV. But although I wasn´t planning to put any effort into my life, I always thought that there had to be more to life than this. I remember having a big argument with my older brother about the ways to succeed in life. He was a teenager and he somehow believed that the only way to make "real" money in life was to do illegal things ( today I believe this was just a way for him to feel more like a real man at that time). I argued that there had to be another way to become successful in life. I thought that if so many different people have become successful - there should be many different ways to success! He couldn´t convince me but he had one question that changed my life. "If there are so many ways for us to success - tell me just one - you smart ass!" I couldn´t. I was so angry! Angry at myself. Angry at the world. I couldn´t let go. I had to do something.

Finding myself standing in front of a bookstore for more then ten minutes I had a funny feeling. All I knew about bookstores at that time was that you could buy books there. I had never read a whole book till that day. And I certainly never had bought a book. But books could be a place for me to find answers. I knew that. So I bought the cheapest book I could find about finances & stocks and left for good. It was so embarrassing to me to buy a book that I was hiding it when arriving at home. I was secretly reading it when nobody was in my room and luckily the writers of this book had a sense of what type of people where reading a low-price $4,99 book about stocks so even I could understand every word of it. It was an eye-opener. It was great!

From that moment on in my life I started to learn how to love learning. I started to understand that reading was a way for me to gain more freedom. I started my journey to what I call today "becoming a learning lunatic". Reading gave me perspectives. While reading books about the life of Gandhi, Rockefeller, Martin Luther King, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates... I felt like having the opportunity to start conversations with people beyond my social circles. To learn from them. And to grow.

This wasn´t like anything I had learned about learning before.

Later I started to buy books about business, audio seminars about public speaking, coaching videos about learning techniques... It was like shoes for women - I couldn´t resist.
I learned how to start a business and how to make it successful because I found out that this was my passion. I was educating myself into a new life.

And after my first business started to generate what was huge amounts of income to me - I bought more education! I invested 60% of all my money into my private education. And it was well worth it!
I became a serial entrepreneur and after some years of personal success another question had appeared in my mind that I couldn´t answer: "How different would my life be today if I didn´t had those $4,99 to buy that book?"
And what if I didn´t had the money to buy the second book...the third....all this education? No matter what the answer to this question may be - it isn´t a good one. And it again made my feel very uncomfortable.

It was around this time when I started discussing with people about our education system worldwide and why I believed that it was broken. It was very easy to agree upon this fact. It was also pretty easy to agree upon WHAT needs to be changed. But it was very hard to think of ways HOW to change it. And again I couldn´t believe that there wasn´t a way. I only had no idea how to find one.

And after telling you all this personal history of mine - let me finally tell you how the idea of Supercool School came to me. Because I didn´t HAD the idea - the idea CAME to me.

First of all I had a dream...I mean a real one. At least I was in a very deep sleep when I jumped up to my chair, took a pencil and wrote something on a piece of paper. After doing this I returned to my bed and immediately fell into a deep sleep again. The next morning I wasn´t sure if I really had written something down or if this was just a dream so I walked to my chair to have a look. Five written words on a piece of paper. Words that revealed an answer to me. An answer to many questions.
Well, sometimes you have to learn some lessons in the beginning of your life before your life can really begin.

After reading those words It took me 2 months of rejection to finally move to months of action. If there could be a place on earth where people share their knowledge by educating each other about what they love - the world would be a better place. Education should have to limits! Not the limit of time, space, money or race - because education is a birth right and empowers people to become what they truly want in life and to reach their full potential. Education gives freedom. That´s why we want to give to the world all education for free!
I say let´s built a different kind of school. Let´s build a Supercool School.

With your help - I am certain we can succeed in this endeavor!

Yours faithfully
Steli Efti, Founder of Supercool School

Comments

[esofthub]

That was a heck of a story and a well spent $4.99!

[Dean A. Nash]

I'll bite, what were the five words? (I'm with you all the way - step one is making knowledge free. Just because it's free, that doesn't mean it comes cheaply. People still have to 'pay attention' (thank you Seth Godin).

[Steli Efti]

Thankx esofthub! That´s nice from you :)

Dean, the five words? Ok...I´ll tell ti to you but psssss...don´t tell anyone else - ok?

Build A Free World School.

Much power to you!
Steli