Adam Braun is an author and entrepreneur who you may know from his work with Pencils of Promise, an organization that creates schools and other projects that bring education to underserved populations living in rural poverty. He’s also the author of the book “The Promise Of A Pencil” and more recently the founder of a super exciting education startup called MissionU– he’ll get into more detail but tell me if you think this sounds interesting: 1 year of intense, skill-based education with NO upfront tuition – instead, you give them a percentage of your income once you land that sweet job.
I love this conversation because we got into so many of the issues with the traditional education system– for example the oftentimes inadequate curriculum and insane cost that leaves so many saddled with crippling debt. But more importantly, we talk about solutions – this is really about two founders who are passionate about making education work for all the people it currently isn’t serving sitting down and comparing notes. If you’re a student or parent of a student this stuff is already top of mind for you, and in a world in which we’ve all got an increasingly urgent mandate to educate ourselves these topics are relevant to anyone – not just traditional students and their families.
Today on the podcast,
- Why he walked away from a career in management consulting – at Bain, no less – the elite of the elites – to dedicate himself to his passion of giving the rural poor access to education via Pencils Of Promise
- We get into a topic I’ve been touching on a lot lately which is balance. As a new father and entrepreneur this is a big challenge for Adam – like many people listening to this I’m sure – and he speaks very candidly about the real tradeoffs he has to make between his company, his family and his health
- On that note, he also shares some of the habits and hacks he’s developed to minimize those tradeoffs – some great stuff that I’d highly encourage putting into practice in your life such as his journaling routine and practice of putting his phone in airplane mode in another room before going to bed
Enjoy!
So many people say they want to be an entrepreneur, but it’s just not in their DNA
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Some Questions I Ask:
- Tell us about MissionU [1:30]
- Do you consider yourself a “tech” person? [6:15]
- What lead you to transition out of Pencils of Promise as your main focus? [17:40]
- How much do you criticize the traditional college system? [25:45]
- How did you move from the non-profit world to a startup? [30:50]
- Does the label of “entrepreneur” feel uncomfortable to you? [33:15]
- What are YOUR values and how do they layer into Mission U? [46:35]
- Tell us how fatherhood has changed your life and business [52:10]
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- How Adam’s experiences travelling abroad inspired him to start Pencils of Promise [3:35]
- How they built 100s of schools across the world [7:20]
- The process of Adam transitioning out of CEO [8:25]
- What Adam believes is fundamentally broken about our college system [10:45]
- How MissionU creates curriculum with their partners like Spotify, Harry’s and Warby Parker [13:45]
- When Adam’s wife opened his eyes to the student debt crisis [19:50]
- Why he feels obligated to shine a light on the problems with the college system [27:30]
- How the limits of non-profits held Adam back from making a bigger difference [31:30]
- Why not everybody should be an entrepreneur [36:50]
- Why Adam is so hopeful about the generation [40:45]
- Why the core of MissionU is that education must turn into livelihood [47:15]
- Why people continue to believe in the traditional college path despite the issues with it [51:00]
- How fatherhood has changed his outlook on the world as a whole – not just business [53:10]
- Why thinking small – about the things and people immediately near you – can be so powerful [54:45]
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