The immigrant kid who hated school:
I was born and raised in Germany as an immigrant kid in a factory worker family from Greece. Nobody in my family had every studied in University or received a higher education.
I hated school from day one. I hated the assembly line methodologies they used to "give" everyone a piece of education and teach us facts we needed to memorize and repeat instead of teaching us to think, learn and explore the world around us. And so I didn't participate at all in school. I didn't read. Didn't do any homework. And barely passed any test by either cheating or memorizing the bare minimum information one night before the test.
Unfortunately, I didn't pursue my personal education at home either...I was watching television most of the day and hanging out with other low income family kids in the neighborhood wasting our collective time.
I didn't invest anything in myself. And as a result I was as ignorant as you could be.
But for some reason I always felt the call for greatness. Always had high aspirations of being "successful in life" - whatever that meant.
You know the type that confuses confidence for competence - that was me!
And then at the age of 16 I had an epiphany that changed my life. I cannot think of any other event that had a more profound impact on my life than this argument...
The argument that changed my life forever:
I was fighting with my older brother Nick. We had an argument about success. His point was that you can either be academically successful in life (becoming a doctor, lawyer etc) or the other choice is to do illegal things to get to tons of money and become economically successful!
I thought this was stupid and fought back with everything I had. Which wasn't a lot to be frank but I couldn't believe that these were the only two choices in life (both where not very attractive to me) - there needed to be other ways!
So after arguing back and forth for an hour my brother finally leaned forward looking me straight in the eyes asking: "Ok you smartass - what are YOU going to do to become successful? Tell me? What is YOUR plan?"
"Uhhm...." I didn't know what to say. And that was that. Older brother 1 Me 0. Case closed...
Frustration and the moment of change:
But not for me. That moment changed my life. I couldn't sleep at night. I couldn't eat anymore. I couldn't look in the mirror. That moment made me aware of my own cluelessness. It made me realize how little I knew about the world and that I had no plan what-so-ever.
Not a good feeling :(
But one that got me going...I started thinking about success more...I remembered the movie "Wallstreet" and how the stock market seemed to be a place to print money (very sophisticated I know).
But I had no idea of how that whole stock market thingy works? I literally had NO CLUE about it. You could have told me that stocks are bets on horse-races - I would have bought it.
"So where to go learn more about the stock market....hmmm...well...a book could provide answers - no?"
So for the first time in my life I considered buying a book to learn more about something. Not only that - I was 16 and never had read a whole book in my entire life...
The first book I ever read - The beginning of a love story:
I went to the local bookstore and was standing in front of it. For 45 minutes. Yep...couldn't get in. Couldn't make the move. Was just standing there and starring and the people who where walking in and out of the bookstore. Nobody looked like me. And I wasn't sure if I was confident enough to walk into a book store. Remember - I never bought a book before in my life and to me this was just another world. A world I wasn't part of and I knew nothing about. "Who knows - maybe they take tests before you can buy books?" Ok ok...I wasn't THAT stupid...but close...I mean really really close...
Well...at some point I took all the courage I had and walked into the store and straight to the section with all the business books picking up the cheapest book I could find about stocks "All about Stocks (Alles uber Aktien) for 4.99. I bought the book and walked back home hiding it under my jacket reading it when I was alone at home (didn't want anyone to know that I was reading A BOOK - that would have ruined my reputation).
It was perfect - It was beautiful! This book was written for someone who has 4.99 to spare for a stock book - big letters, tons of pictures - very simple language - just perfect for someone like me! I understood everything :) And THAT felt amazing...
Falling in love with learning - my education begins:
I loved it! I couldn't believe the rush and excitement I felt understanding something that felt so empowering...so liberating...I needed more! More knowledge (Uuuuhhhhhh...)
And that was the first time I felt like this about learning. The first time I disassociated learning with rules, boundaries and restrictions and associated it with freedom, power and joy! What a powerful switch in perception. What a powerful change in reality...
I went straight back to the bookstore to buy my second book...and then my third one...and then I needed a job in order to afford the expensive business books I wanted to buy (I have to admit...the more expensive the better and smarter I felt buying them...for a while I was buying books I could neither read nor understand but it still felt great ;)).
I read. I read every free minute. I read about business, stocks, entrepreneurship. I read about positive thinking and successful people. I read biographies and I read about history. A whole new world opened up for me.
A world outside the reach of my personal family and friends. A world of incredible thinkers and doers - The world of entrepreneurship & business.
That's when I knew what I was born to do...what I wanted to do with my life...I wanted to become an entrepreneur!
That was the time when I started my self-education and never looked back. I invested every free second acquiring new knowledge till the point where pure knowledge was not enough and I needed to jump into cold water to learn how to swim faster...
Dropping out of school to start learning more:
I knew school was not for me so I decided to drop out of high school to start my first business and learn from the real world.
It was the best decision I ever made. It was perfect timing for me. During the time of my first two businesses I spend almost all my money on self education growing my knowledge and passion for learning and becoming a "learning lunatic". I was so passionate about it that I was selling "learning" to anyone and everyone!
If you weren't on a tree by the count of three I was pitching you why you needed to learn more, read more, educate yourself more...
...a few years and businesses later...
Supercool School - an idea for the next generation online school is born:
That's when I had the idea for Supercool School and a radically new model for education and learning. The idea to commoditize education by democratizing and decentralizing the process on the web.
Essentially empowering everyone to create their own next generation online school to teach and study from others online.
But I had not idea about the web (was spending 5 minutes online at the time) and my network was in all kinds of areas but not in technology.
So I decided to do the only unreasonable thing there is to do and sold everything I had to buy a one way ticket to San Francisco. There I hoped to find smarter people than I am to help me build Supercool School and change the education world forever.
And since I've been here I've constantly been the stupidest person in the room ( I have to admit not a hard task for me at all). But a great position to learn from...
A couple of months later here we are...me writing this post and you reading it :)Lots of ups and downs in between but for sure one of the most intense learning experience of my life.
So this is it. This is why I started Supercool School. This is why I care about education and learning. Because it changed my life from a miserable little kid living in a small village in Germany to a Sillicon Valley Entrepreneur who loves life and is working with some of the most talented and passionate people in the world to change education - how cool is that?!?!
But enough about me (after writing half a book post here) - what's YOUR personal story? How did your personal journey in the area of education and learning go?
Let's share as many stories about educational transformations as possible with the world...I'll read u in the comments...
Much power!
Steli
