and we'll go from there.
So awesome.
So you got the full stack of rookie cards I don't have.
I got the poster and you know,
I've been a massive fan of the I Promise School.
You're building something in a virtual format
that just looks as amazing to me.
So are you a fan of LeBron?
Love LeBron James.
I was a big basketball player as a kid
and at the time I used to collect basketball cards.
One of my friends had this like Michael Jordan rookie card
and I wanted it,
but realized it was way out of my budget
and everyone was talking about this LeBron James guy
and how he was gonna be the next Michael Jordan.
So I rushed to the NBA store and got my rookie card set.
I have 20 of them thinking one day, you know,
I'd sell them for a fortune.
And now they just have so much sentimental value.
I can't even imagine selling them.
Right, absolutely.
That's awesome.
Oh man, I couldn't either.
Maybe my kids, maybe one of my kids
will not have the same.
I was thinking like, oh, you know,
I gotta go and get them signed and autographed,
but then I'm like, that'll increase the value of them
and I'm still not gonna sell them.
So what's the...
Right.
So how influential has the I Promise School been
on your venture?
And I guess like, when did it start the idea
of launching Practice BC?
Yeah, so I actually started Practice Benefit Corp in 2010.
So originally as Practice Makes Perfect,
we went through a couple of iterations,
but we're in year 14.
So not a lot of inspiration from I Promise,
but I definitely like followed what they've been doing there.
And you and I were just talking right before this
about the media headlines that they're in.
And I'm happy to jump in and talk a little bit about that,
but we're not just virtual, we're virtual and in person.
We also have a host of curricular services for schools
and grade book and behavior management software.
So over the 14 years, we've definitely expanded our repertoire
of being able to support urban school leaders.
Yes, I love it, man.
I can't wait to show the audience
what you've been up to, why this matters so much.
One of the quotes in your scissor reel
talked about how we as a society,
or me myself as a parent,
it's not enough to just take interest
in my own kid's success.
And I couldn't agree more with that.
I mean, I served a mission in Uruguay for two years,
and it caught my attention.
And I was a product of multiple homes.
I needed a father role model in my life.
A lot of people took me in and helped me out.
I know how important it is for me to be there
for as many people as I can be responsibly.
You seem to have a similar background with that.
You lost your father.
Is that what drove that sentiment home,
or was it something that you already knew and followed?
Yeah, I mean, I think I've always been prone to service.
It's just been something I've been wired to do more of.
But as I started to learn about the disparities
in education and losing my father,
and then being blessed with so many incredible mentors
throughout my formative years,
I just realized how important it was
and how much of a difference it could make.
And I think at an educational level,
it may make sense to me,
but it may not more broadly to folks,
because I think sometimes in society,
we think we're more independent than we are interdependent.
But if the pandemic has taught us anything,
and even what we're seeing now with this widespread wars
is that we are in a world where we need to coexist
and we need to understand what coexistence looks like.
And there is a whole host of interdependencies,
whether we wanna accept it or not.
It is our fate and it is our reality.
So when a pandemic starts in China
and gets all the way to the United States, that impacts us.
When there's a wildfire in California
and the smog gets all the way to Canada and New York,
that impacts us.
So we can't live in isolation,
and it's no different when we're thinking about a society
and we each other as like people and humans.
Absolutely.
So there's a lot of visionaries listening in
that have visions and they could be in the start
of their journey.
You have been on some of the biggest stages.
What are three resources?
It could be books, movies, activities, academies, et cetera.
What are three resources you'd recommend
for any visionary to take a look at?
Yeah, I've been like hooked on Hidden Brain
is just a podcast for your like ongoing learning journey.
I think they release a free episode once a week.
Scaling Up, it's a book by Vern Harnish.
It's kind of like the startup Bible better
than a lot of the books that I've read out there
because it's like pretty straightforward
and not as complicated, but relevant at every single stage.
And the more you read it,
the more you're gonna get out of it
depending on where you are.
And then I think my next favorite I'd say
is the E-Myth by Michael Graver.
It's like so simple.
I read it once in the very beginning
and it like went over my head
and then had to pick it up again a few times
and by the second or third time,
it just again read very differently
but goes to the essence of like
why we build things in the first place
and what they mean for us as individuals.
And until we could get to the core
of what the implications are
for anything that we're building in our own lives,
it's silly to assume that we wanna go out there
and build something with a much larger impact.
You know, I think the example he has
is like the baker who's baking who loves to bake,
but then all of a sudden finds herself
in a restaurant that she can't manage
because she never wanted to be in the business of baking.
And so I think super crucial for any visionary
to know why you're there at the beginning
or resources you're going
and then something to keep your brain stimulated
and learning every single week.
You bring up a great point.
The E-Myth is a book that I tell people
I regret not reading the day it came across my desk
eight years previously.
And I may not have had the depth of understanding
and experience prior to to fully appreciate
the extreme value that that book is.
So great resources.
Thank you for that.
I'm definitely getting scaling up
and I got to check out the Hidden Brain podcast as well.
So without further ado,
we're gonna cut to the break everybody.
Join us for Kareem Abulnagas,
dreaming big vision,
impacting a million young lives by 2030.
I think he's gonna impact way more than that.
You'll see in just a minute.
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
With Jackson Calame, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
Hey, what's up everybody?
Welcome in to another episode of Vision Pros Live.
I'm your show host, Jackson Calame,
founder and CEO of First Class Business.
And I'm super excited today.
It's one of those,
I'm actually nervous excited to host Karim Aboulnaga
because he is building a vision that is so sacred to me,
so powerful and so exciting
that I'm like desperate to get it right.
I wanna make sure that all of you understand the value
of what's here because you're going to learn so much
from being able to see what he's built and how he's built it.
And we all have an opportunity to learn so much
about what we can do to help out even further in society
by following his lead.
Before I bring Karim on stage, of course,
I'm gonna talk about some sponsors
that could be extremely helpful for you as well.
I'm actually gonna ask Kareem too,
if he doesn't mind allowing us to also promote his program
as a sponsorship as we continue to move forward as well.
So we got the law spot with Melissa Gray.
Melissa Gray is an attorney.
When she came on our show, I was a bit apprehensive.
I'm not a big fan of attorneys,
most of them to be honest with you,
but she came in with this nurturing attitude.
She understands that law doesn't have to be complicated.
And as I really listened to what she was talking about
and started to understand how she helps businesses,
I was like, you know, of all the businesses I've worked with,
probably less than 5% have somebody on retainer.
And out of those 5%,
they probably took one of the first people they found
on Google rather than doing their research
and making sure they protected themselves.
Now I've shared this story a lot,
but if you haven't heard it,
you know, we had a $20,000 trademark lawsuit
at Restaurant Connect, we were able to win,
but I don't think it had to cost us $20,000
have we just done our research correctly.
I've also dealt with cease and desist,
I've also dealt with non-competes
and many other realities that if I had just found the person
that I could talk to and felt like I could trust
that wasn't charging me for every minute of my time with them,
I probably could have handled situations
a little bit better too.
So I highly recommend including her in your lineup
of resources to research.
This is one of those bite the bullet moments,
find the right person,
make sure that you've done your research well
and learn to be a wise steward of your venture.
Then there's Andrew Sosin of Recovery Unplugged
and Recovery Unplugged is a program that is,
it's not nationwide, but it's in many different cities now
and he's got over 400 employees.
Andrew has built a drug and alcohol addiction
treatment program that also expands
beyond traditional drugs and alcohol.
Really all addictions are the same.
If there's something that is a vice that is getting your way,
it could be Netflix, it could be apps
that you're spending too much time playing games on.
There's so many things that we can do that turn into devices
and as entrepreneurs, we tend to have addictive personality.
So whether this helps you directly as a resource
or this is something that helps a family member
or friend who's suffering, you might consider,
they have a 24 seven hotline that you can call and talk to
and they've gone virtual now.
They have virtual capacities and capabilities
because COVID like everybody else,
it affected them and pushed them to an online world.
Well, I think what that did is it empowered them
to be able to serve the masses.
So I've got an entire side of my family
that is plagued by addictions.
I know firsthand as well what it means
to have to overcome it.
And I'm a big fan of a Ted talk too
that's called everything we know about addiction is wrong.
And Andrew Sosin who's been to Tony Robbins program
22 years in a row, taking over a thousand people to it
and has just done an incredible job
of leading by example and creating a team
that is absolutely amazing.
I highly recommend again, checking out this program
and seeing how he's going about changing the world.
Then there's a water project
and the water project is my cause of choice.
There are many causes out there that I'd be happy to support.
If you know of one, feel free to drop it
in the comments, please.
We're always looking for opportunity to serve.
We've got 8 billion people out there to help.
The water projects doing an excellent job in my opinion
of showcasing the value of what they do.
They treat their program like a Kickstarter
and you can choose a community
that literally does not have access to clean drinking water.
You can see how many people live in the community.
You can see the project come to fruition
even if you just donate $5.
Now, if you're not in a position to donate,
a lot of people have been affected by the economy.
COVID really hurt people.
It continues to stretch people out further and further.
My request is that you just share this
or that you tag somebody who comes to mind
who might be willing or able to help with the cause.
This isn't about pressuring people.
I'm not here saying like, hey, you have to go do this.
Like, no, not at all.
But I see this picture on my screen
of these kids celebrating water
with more enthusiasm than my own kids celebrate Christmas.
And we celebrate Christmas like crazy.
So my point being, there's so much need.
There's millions of people who we could step up and help
and then go meditate and ponder
on the help that you were able to provide
and the good that you were able to do.
Feeling good is something that will empower you
to also go about doing more good in your life.
And so I hope you join us on the causes
that are in this world.
Now, before I bring Kareem on stage,
I'm gonna play the best sizzler reel we've ever played,
one of the most important ones
that I probably ever will play.
And you'll see just why I'm so excited to have him on stage
and what types of things we can do
to help children with education and beyond.
Standing beside me is governing board member Kareem Abunaga.
Kareem Abunaga is CEO and co-founder
of Practice Makes Perfect.
Kareem was named Q-Forbes 30 under 30 list.
His Ted Talk was named one of the most
inspiring speeches of 2017.
Clap three times if you can hear me.
Seven years ago, I started to reform
our public education system.
What's even more exciting is that if we can prevent
five months of lost time, just by redesigning two months,
imagine the possibilities that we can unlock
by tackling the rest of the calendar year.
What are some of the things that you think
that we as school librarians can do
to get our kids fired up about our summer reading programs?
I mean, there's so much today on individualizing
instruction and learning.
The number one reason why kids show up every single day
is because of the relationship they build with their mentors.
It's the notion that you wake up every single day
and someone cares about your presence.
My father passed away in 2007.
There we were from middle class to literally rock bottom.
A lot of the experiences that have come through that
have made the individual that I am today.
In low-income neighborhoods, kids forget almost three months
of what they learned during the school year over the summer.
People respond to urgency.
Why is this important to you right now?
Why do you care about this today?
Why didn't you care about this 10 days ago,
or 20 days ago, or two years ago?
And then why are you the right person
to be doing this work in this moment?
If we truly want to embrace the full potential
of our future, then we need to move away from this notion
of just looking out for my kids and move in the direction
of looking out for all of our kids.
Without further ado, Kareem Abulnaga, thank you so much
for joining us on Vision Pros Live.
Thank you for having me, Jackson.
Great flow to be here.
Great voice from us.
We'll dive into some of my extracurricular questions
in just a minute.
I got to ask you, so what is your vision
for those that you serve?
Because you're serving a lot of people, as we just saw.
Yeah, I mean, we have it internally,
and we say it religiously now.
No child circumstance limits their potential.
And it's not just a slogan.
It really is this understanding that we don't
choose the circumstance or the zip code or the environment
that we're born in.
born shouldn't dictate what our life prospects or outcomes are because there's no relationship
between genius and zip code. And so it's our job, our responsibility to make sure that
every single child has the resources, has the tools that they need to be able to achieve
their God given potential.
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And I saw very clearly on your website, your team's done
a great job of articulating your vision, your mission, your core values, you know, what
it is that you guys are looking to accomplish. And that makes it very easy for leaders like
myself to quickly jump on the bandwagon to quickly say, Oh my gosh, like, look at look
at what this I want to I want to involved in this, I want to make sure that this succeeds.
So it's a great testament to what we're trying to teach those who are listening in for the
sake of building their own visions. What's your what's your vision for you, though? What
do you see for yourself on the horizon?
There's no no difference. They're actually one in the same. The only thing I add there
is that I'm hustling to make that happen. So yeah, you'll see in every single thing
that I'm doing. It's the push, right? It's this understanding that we need to be scrappy.
We need to be resourceful if we're going to change the status quo, if we're not going
to accept what was there before. And I do have to throw that caveat out there that this
is year 14, right? All of these things are iterative. I remember starting with this like
frustration. And the words I used to use in the early days was this premise that no child's
starting point that every single kid, regardless of their race or socioeconomic status, had
equal potential to compete intellectually in our society. And as you can see, it's like
a mouthful, but the essence and the aura of it are still the same. So I want to just be
encouraging to to the visionaries who are starting out that it is an evaluatory process.
I just made that word up, but I love it. You're an education. That's good to do. You know,
you start, you continue to build, you add, you take feedback in, you consider how other
people are receiving. And to your point, though, the goal is to recognize that you can't do
the big life changing, mountain moving stuff that's going to have a really big impact on
your own. And so as a leader, your job is to get out there, be as clear and as like
inclusive as possible so that other people can join you in doing the work. Because this
isn't in service of me at the end of the day, right? This is in service of society. And
so we need everyone mobile, mobilize and moving in the same direction if we're going to realize
the vision that we ultimately want. Yes. So I hold sacred a word that is just so battered
and thrown into a blender that you use the hustle word. This is a mission that to me,
like, I'm like, go hustle. Kareem, like, let's hustle. Right. Let's get after it. This is
about millions, if not billions of people who without our hustle, you know, where do
they, where do they sleep in the future? You know, where do they get their next food? Where
do they get their next job? Where do they get the training they need to get their next
job? And this is a hustle that I can absolutely honor and say like, wow, like this is, it's
so important. How do you balance living your life and being at peace, enjoying, yeah, enjoying
yourself with, you know, and being healthy with that knowledge that man, everybody's
counting on you to hustle for this, this brand, for this organization, for the mission and
vision. I think in the beginning, it was sort of go 24 seven as much as I possibly could.
And I was having a great conversation, actually, my therapist about this yesterday. So I'll
definitely jump in and share a little bit more of that. But it was 24 seven. And then
I realized, you know, this is a marathon, right? And you don't win a marathon by sprinting
the entire time, you have to pace yourself so you can get all the way through the race.
And I was talking to my therapist about this idea of like workaholism, right? I was like,
is this like, the same thing? Am I a workaholic? And am I actually let me take that a step
further saying addicted to work? You know, like, I love what I do. I know why I exist.
I know why God put me on this earth. And that is what I am laser focused on doing. But am
I taking that to another level? And he used the analogy of an NFL player. And he was like,
if you were to observe your you're an NFL player, and you were that NFL player, like,
what would your life look like? And we took a step back and we said, Yep, the season starts
in July, August, and it runs if you're lucky, all the way until February. And during that
time period, it is game film, sometimes two days in the gym, continuing to make sure that
you're watching out for your nutrition. And there are really very few if any distractions.
And then you finish the season. And what's what's the off season look like? Well, the
off season is preparing for the following season. And so from the outside looking in,
we look at any pro athlete, and we'd say, you know what, that person is a workaholic,
right? But are they addicted to work? And we can stomach the other reality, which is
that for all of these like pro athletes, and for anyone who's in there driving their their
living their purpose and pushing towards a mission, our time is finite. There will come
a day in a time where we no longer get to choose whether or not we continue to play,
right? Whether it's an injury, or we're past our prime or our peak, and I kind of feel
like right now and at least for the last 14 years, so to get people comfort and knowing
that it can sustain you for a while that I'm in that zone of, I know exactly why God put
me here. And I need to maximize the time and the effort and the energy that I put into
making sure that we can change the circumstance for a lot of kids who are growing up just
like me. And so I don't know if that gives me another 10 years or another 50 years, but
knowing that it's finite continues to drive me to move forward. And yes, it's a marathon.
So there is self care, like I'm talking about a therapist, I get my sleep, I know what my
values are, and I do everything I can to make sure that things feel balanced in the odd
sense that we can balance things in.
Right, absolutely. I love it. It's refreshing to hear any visionaries who feel friends or
family telling them to slow down when you feel that peace in your heart and your mind,
that you know that you're doing the right thing, that this is the thing that you're
supposed to be dedicating your time and attention to. It's you who has that internal compass
and it's having a therapist, a mentor, somebody who's qualified to help you evaluate that
and you might have to go through a few therapists.
All of the above, right? It may not just be one thing.
Yeah, it may be a lot of things. LeBron James dedicates $1 million per year to his body
and his health. And it's interesting to see a man who's now 39 years old continue to dominate
his sport and seems to also have, seems to be healthier than I am. And I'm quite a bit
younger than him and I don't think he's working any less hard than I am. In fact, I would
say he's probably got an even greater work ethic than I still do. I'm trying though,
man. I'm trying to figure that out. But you can have your cake and eat it too. And so
anyway, let's move into a difficult subject. One of the darker subjects. What is, it's
not about yours. I want to point this out. What is your worst leadership experience ever?
I mean, what's the worst leadership experience you've ever seen? You've ever been a part
of, you've ever experienced, this could be related to teachers and principals or governing
bodies and how they're handling education. This could be something where you fell on
your face too. I'll let you take it from there, Kareem.
Yeah, I mean, I'm quick to like jump to self. And when you've been running a business or
an organization for as long as I have now, there will undoubtedly be moments where you
fall on your face. I think the most embarrassing part is when you don't know you've fallen
on your face. Because I think when we fall in, it's easy to get up and then brush it
off. We always say that to kids, right? Like get up and try again. But when you don't know
you've fallen, it only gets a little bit worse. Because you're trying to push yourself even
though you're hurt. And so I think for me, I have to go back to a time in 2017, 2018,
where I had, when we transitioned the organization from a nonprofit to a public benefit corporation,
which is a for-profit structure, I had the opportunity to not build another board. And
I jumped on it. And I jumped on it because I thought that the board was holding the organization
back. So this is what I talk about when you don't know. And in fact, I was the one who
didn't know how to manage a board. And really, I was the one holding the organization back.
And after that came a successive series of bad decisions and mistakes, just unchecked
thoughts that really almost led the organization into near bankruptcy. And I was always very
transparent. And anyone on my team will tell you, very transparent about our financial
position, very transparent about what we're doing. And I thought that when you share the
financial status of the organization and the health that people just got it, like they
understood your expenses exceed your revenue and they continue to exceed for a long while.
You're spending more cash than you're bringing in. You would think that intuitively when
you show people that, that they know, oh, that means that the company is going to run
out of money, or I might not have a job here a few months from now. And it's actually not
the case. Most people manage their work financials in the same way they manage their budgets
at home, right? Like they don't want anything to do with them. They try and hide from them.
They don't think about what the implications are until they get to the moment where it's
like, okay, you know, it's hit the fan and now you have to do something about it. And
for me, I thought that by sharing and sharing and sharing that people would get the message,
you know, we were making bad decisions, we had more cash outflow than inflow, and we
got to a point where we nearly bankrupted the company. And I remember in that like moment
that what should be really scary for an entrepreneur, I almost felt relieved. You know, I had a
friend asked me the other day, what did it feel like in the moment when everything had
just sort of unraveled and you got to that point? And I was like, I felt relieved. And
in hindsight, you know, I say that it was very cowardice of me, because I couldn't make
the difficult decisions. I couldn't have the crucial conversations that I needed to have.
And I got to the point where it was like very obvious, you know, like, look, there's actually
no more money, you know, so there isn't really any way to do this. And, you know, as someone
who was committed and driven and kind of figure out whatever it is I needed to figure out,
I was willing to work for free. And I knew other people may not have that same luxury
or be able to do it in the same way. And so I definitely have to say that was my worst
leadership experience ever. And as you can imagine, there were probably people all around
me who were saying things that I just didn't listen to or didn't resonate with me or I
didn't understand. And I had a lot of reflecting in that moment, because the analogy I kind
of give people are the metaphors. You're in a rowboat, it's pitch black, you're in the
middle of the ocean, and there's no way to go. And there's no obvious direction. But
if you stop rowing, you're going to sink. And so you don't get to that position without
making a series of bad decisions. And luckily, you know, I was humble enough to be able to
then take it in in that moment, acknowledge the mistakes that I had made, and then start
to seek out help, get the resources and be able to turn everything around where there
was a light. And finally, I was rowing in the right direction. And we were able to rebuild
the entire company to where it is today. But have to say that, in hindsight, definitely
the worst leadership experience ever.
Okay, that makes me want to say chapter two, like, let's go right into this. Are you writing
a book on that by chance? It might be it might be parts of it in my third book that's in
the works right now, but not not definitively in there yet, because I feel like the story
still being written.
Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. It's it's so it makes you just, again, want to dive
in and be like, Well, so what happened? Like, how did you get the money? We will circle
back if we can. I've got a pointed question for my entrepreneurs that are listening, my
visionaries, because you've modeled something that I just I love. And I'm like, man, I want
to be you when I grow up. So I asked you, I tried so hard to push you away from talking
about yourself with this worst leadership experience, you know, and I'm like, I'm thinking,
as you responded, like, Nah, I gotta stick with self on this. You know, I'm also thinking
in my brain, like, if I had teed up a politician with this opportunity, they would have destroyed
their competition, you know, and, and, and, like, eating that up, like, what in a heartbeat,
you know, and I'm like, dang, that is why leadership in America. Right. So and then
I'm like, Well, did you do that? Because you've been trained by PR to stay focused on yourself?
Or is that just something that you know, as you've learned as a leader, that you you should
keep a focus on yourself? Like, what what caused you to realize the power and value
of staying? I mean, I the thought of like, self versus other wasn't even the consideration
was what was your worst leadership experience? And I just knew it. This is the worst leadership
experience I've ever experienced or seen. And I just so happened to have a front row
seat at this one.
I think someone else, I think a lot I think a lot of leaders put the blinders on them.
And they go through experiences like that, you know, or I have, I've had a tendency in
the past, maybe even in the present to point the finger. I'm like, well, it's really their
fault. You know, man, like they really made if it wasn't for them, this wouldn't have
been so bad. But, you know, then you learn through experiences of life, really, like,
no, no, no, no, I wasn't that front row. So I was driving. It was me. So thank you for
doing it.
Oh, yeah. And if I had if I if it wasn't me, I would be more than happy to have like put
it on someone else.
So true accountability. That's right. Like that's the real measure of like the self-awareness.
It's not being overly judgmental on the negative or being overly accepting of the positive.
It's getting us close to what realism is. Right. We sometimes think the people who are
pushing away all the praise are really humble. But that that's also a form of arrogance.
Right. You should be accepting when people give you those compliments because they are
you. And it comes back to that strong self of or that strong sense of self-awareness
that we all need to cultivate and we're continuing to cultivate throughout our leadership journey.
Absolutely. Well said. We're going to dive into the best leadership experience. What's
the best leadership experience look like?
I have to take a second to think about this. Best leadership experience. Yeah. You know,
I guess I would maybe use that same moment and say, how do you get out of that situation?
Right. And I think that is the true testament of good leadership. Also, it's you get in
there and then how do you get out? And I can tell you that the process is I don't know
if it's codified or anything like that out there. But for me, I would go back and say,
it starts with accepting responsibility. And this can go broadly for any leader who's out
there in any challenging situation. It's accepting responsibility, knowing what you
did that's in it. Then it's figuring out what help you need to get out of it. And so I talk
about this in my TED talk, but asking for help going out there and getting it. So you
need to get over everything else, all the feelings and sentiments that it's all about
you and whatnot. And so I would say that was the second piece is getting the help. And
then after you get the help, it's stopping then to reflect so you don't repeat the same
mistake. Right. And so I think those three elements are evident, I'm sure in any great
leadership example, it's you take the accountability, you get the help that you need to get out
of the situation because you need to keep moving. And then you go back and you reflect
so you don't repeat the same mistake. So that is what I did on the flip side of it right
after it. And I think that was how we ultimately were able to turn and navigate the ship. Now
the details obviously are for a whole other chapter.
Yeah, absolutely. So you know what it reminds me of is a Bible story of Paul on the road
to Damascus. Right. You've got somebody who's leading a mission, a purpose, a vision of
executing, killing Christians who has this massive transformation and shift. And then
ultimately, in this case, he abandons his post, abandon his brand, his organization
and goes in the complete opposite direction and leads with tenacity, persistence, diligence,
like continues. But he's obviously made a self-awareness shift and change in what he's
doing. And so, you know, your story, those of you who are listening in, like it might
not be as dramatic as Paul's, you know, it might not be as pronounced as Kareem's with
his organization, but you have that opportunity to pivot to. And I think that's the biggest
thing that I want you to take away is get back up. Like the posters say, you know, if
you've failed seven times, I mean, if you've fallen down seven times, get up eight. Right.
That's our opportunity as leaders to continue. So speaking of universal lessons or powerful
lessons, Kareem, if this was your last opportunity ever to share a powerful lesson with other
visionaries, what powerful lesson can other visionaries learn from your experience?
I wish I could say it was my lesson, but I think Gandhi like was what I went to for this
source of truth at the time. And it was be the change you wish to see in the world. And
it wasn't just about doing good.
I thought that was Michael Jackson.
It really was like in that moment, right? The recognition that our behaviors are what
other people follow, not what we say. And we can't change other people. Right. We only
have control over ourselves, but we recognize that people respond and react to how we act.
And so if you want to get a different reaction in this situation, you need to change your
action. And so for me, it was accepting the responsibility, going out and changing my
behavior now, right? Being more open, more considerate of what people were saying to
be able to course correct. So I wish I could say like I had the powerful lesson, but it
was really leaning into that. What Gandhi said. And for me, it was clarifying what is
my purpose? Why am I doing this? And using that then as fuel to change myself, because
I needed to be a different person. I needed to show up differently in this next stage,
if this is going to be successful and continue to move forward in the way that I needed it
to.
I love that. You know, again, maybe someday people have forgotten that Gandhi said it
and then Michael Jackson said it and they just correlate it with you. I mean, I think
that's the value of universal truth, though. I think that was what would make Gandhi happy
is just the torch being carried on by somebody else. Right. So reinventing the wheel, you
know, is one way to go about creating positive change, but also doing what's been valued
and has stood the test of time. So thank you for that.
I mean, Michael Jackson has the Heal the World song that's up there on one of my favorite
lists, you know, for responsibility to make it a better place. I'm not wouldn't put that
too far off of something he would also be inspired by or committed to during his life.
Man in the mirror, too. You know, it's if you want to make the world a better place
and look in the look in the mirror and and change yourself. Right. So I didn't get the
words right. But y'all know what I'm talking about. Somebody correct me in the comments,
please. I appreciate that. All right. So let me let me put this out there. I don't want
to lose that opportunity to quote that because it is a powerful quote. And again, my best
lessons to they come from the people who I've learned from and have helped me see past and
beyond myself. So we're going to take we're going to take the rest of the time to dive
in about impact in a million young lives. I mean, how are you going about that? I would
like you to steer me on this, too. So if there's any questions that we should be asking you
about these projects, how we can get involved, why it matters, what what action steps we
can take, et cetera. The time is yours, Kareem. I love all of those. So we can definitely
jump into any of them. But I would say like our tagline is that empowering urban schools,
right? And we want to empower urban education. And so I would say if you're in a city center,
we've started there. That's our area of expertise right now. So we're not trying to be exclusive
in any way. But we're looking at urban schools that we want to continue to support when we
talk about our who. Right. So I want to give you just a very visual understanding of who
they are. We're talking about overwhelmed. We say Title One School Administrator, which
really means that they're running a low income school could be a Catholic school, a private
school, a district school, a charter school, any school administrator who's overwhelmed
and they're running a low income school. But they deeply care about results for their scholars
and their families. We want to connect with them. So if you know that person or you have
them in your network, send them our way. We're more than happy to work with them and figure
out how we can support them and support their scholars and getting the results that they
ultimately need. So I would say that's how you can get involved in supporting us. For
a lot of y'all, it might be indirectly more so than it is directly. If you're in college
or a recent college grad and you are interested in becoming an educator, you can apply to
work with us. We have a lot of in-person jobs, but also remote jobs. So online tutoring where
you can push into the classrooms, work with scholars that way to actually be a part of
what we're doing day in and day out. So I would say those are the biggest two ways that
folks can contribute and support us.
Wow. Okay. Do you have pages regarding these two particular paths by chance? I know I'm
putting you on the spot.
To join the team is how you can come in and work with us. And then the services and solutions
are really how folks can contact us to work with us. So you'll see ton of open positions
there. We launched programming in Denver, we're in Richmond Community Schools at Michigan,
and we're the largest tutoring organization in New York City. So continuing to expand
our footprint.
That's amazing. So man, I'm going to say something so sacrilegious. I worked really, really hard
though in my university to get a 0.33 GPA. Is there a place for me, Kareem?
A 0.33 GPA.
Totally. 0.33. I've crushed dating at 4.0 and dating, but I'm such a worthless student.
I just didn't understand the system. I really didn't. I ended up studying for the first
time. I did really well in my junior college. And then I went to a private university right
after that. And when I took my first test, I had studied for the first time in my life
and I got a 30 on the test. And I was waiting for the scores to refresh on the screen knowing
that maybe it's still calculating. No, that was what I got. And I literally just stopped
going to classes after that. I was like, okay, I'm not going out for this. And I didn't understand
the value of a university and the network effect and all that. My point is I love education.
The years later, I took StrengthsFinder 2.0, found out my number one skillset was learner.
And I was like, this thing's got to be broken. And we read, my wife and I, at the time we
took that. Hers was all about curriculum and studying and like all the traditional stuff.
Mine was you were the kid who was always asking why. And sure enough, my report card always
had an E on it. E wasn't for excellent. It was for excessive talking. Go figure. Now
I rock the mic. So yeah, is there-
You're already working with us. So in this case here, you're helping us amplify our message
and getting our story out there. So yes, there's a place for you. I mean, we're already experiencing
it right now, but would encourage folks to think about what they're already doing and
good at and then how we can use that in a way to either amplify our message, further
our reach. You might be doing research that you think is relevant to the work that we're
doing and we want to run some more evidence-based trials or efficacy studies that we think might
be helpful. There's absolutely a part there. You heard me talk about my third book right
now. So if you're a writer, you want to get in on that or you want to support some way
directly, indirectly, like there's opportunities there. So if you don't know and you have a
really strong skillset, reach out to me. I'm super accessible on all the social media handles
and more than happy to strike a conversation about how we can get you involved.
I love that. And I'm going to express some deep appreciations for some of the humility
that Kareem directed me and all of us towards, right? Go get the book. Go write a review.
Go like the TED Talk on YouTube. These elements, we want to do something grandiose oftentimes.
In reality, how we move mountains is one shovel at a time, one handful of dirt at a time.
It's amazing what we can accomplish. Go look at the Shawshank Redemption. I hope you dug
out of that prison, for instance, in the movie. But at summer school, the kids actually want
to attend is the TED Talk. Go watch the TED Talk and then share it. Those little acts
of virtue add up in major ways. I'm in a rural state, so to speak. Texas has a lot of rural
nature to it, right? And I am outside of the city, but I'm definitely in the metropolitan
areas. The reason why I'm bringing it up, my sister is a principal in Midland, Texas.
So that's not urban. I don't think it's considered urban. It's about as rural as it gets. Is
there something that would that be a benefit to talk to her?
We have on-demand virtual tutoring services that we can still support her students with.
So we use urban because that's where we know our expertise is out. But actually, all of
our services are designed to serve students. We have curriculum, so our curriculum is also
used in a ton of schools. And then we have a great book and behavior management software.
And again, those aren't exclusive of any territory or area. Those are places we can deliver.
Where some of our bigger things are like our in-person services. We're pushing into a classroom.
We're trying to earn an after-school program. It's just a lot harder to attract and retain
talent. So that closes off a large part of the programming that we run. But we can absolutely
still find a way to partner, work together, and serve the scholars.
That's great. Then I'll certainly make her...
Just on her radar.
Yes. And see what's going on. It'll be fun to get her opinion. Midland is not known at
all for its education. I'm sorry, Midland. You're just not. And on the same token, she
is driving waves. She's got this tenacious passion and energy. I got five older sisters.
I am not the alpha in my house at all. Not even close. They 100% are. So you think I'm
tenacious and like alpha. No, my sisters. They got me beat. So with that said, all right,
Kareem. We're going to take great care. Everybody's listening to put some action steps on the
landing page so that again, it's clear for you where to go, what to do. And again, I
hope that you're willing to take the simple steps of action that support this mission
and vision. And then if you feel called to do greater things, then my reference at this
point would be Eli Wild. If you don't know who that is, you're listening. Eli Wild has
a great cell system. He wanted to work for Tony Robbins badly. And so he, within two
weeks time, he contacted Tony Robbins organization over 200 different times in 200 different
ways. Not being annoying, finding a new way to create a new ally and a new friend. He
bought the book. He went to the conference. He did all sorts of things to get in there.
Then he became the top sales rep, the name of the ward after him. His story's pretty
cool. My challenge to you is if you really believe in this too, you see this as an opportunity,
then dive in to practice BC. See what Kareem has been up to. Find a stage to pull him on
and put him on. There are so many children out there who do not have a parent who's looking
out for their good. They may be in the foster system. They may be in a home where the parent
is so overwhelmed economically and with their own disastrous worst leadership experiences
ever that they've given up and lost hope on moving things forward. There's a lot of reasons
why children need more help. I hope that I can do everything that I can to support you
on what you're up to, Kareem. The little steps, the big steps. I'll talk to my team about
it too, see what we can do. Are we allowed to? Would it be okay if we put you guys in
the sponsor's section as well? Absolutely. Yeah, we would more than love that. I appreciate
you offering that. Yes, absolutely. Vision Pros, if you've got a vision to share, even
if it's not as world impactful as Kareem's, if it's virtuous, if it's good, if it's helping
the local community, whatever it is, we've got a button too for you in the top right
corner. It says, be our guest. We'd love to have you on this show. We'd love to talk to
you about what your vision is. It is truly about serving and helping others and giving
other visionaries the opportunity to just see what types of principles, what types of
resources are helping us with our continued efforts to create growth and maybe our light
doesn't shine as bright as everybody else's, but that doesn't mean it's not valuable.
It doesn't mean it doesn't add up to help out. If you've got a vision, don't hesitate
to bring it on our show. If you want to connect with Kareem, drop a comment. Let us know
what questions you have, what observations you have. If you have a program that you feel
is better at doing what we're both up to, send it our way. Those are opportunities for
us to compare math notes on a chalkboard and be like, hey, cool, good formula. Thank you.
And work together and say, what if we combined our efforts together? There's so many ways
to bring about good that I just, I can't help but encourage you as visionaries, connect
with other visionaries, know that you belong in these conversations. Kareem, go ahead,
you end this.
No, I would also just say like, if there isn't something directly that you can do immediately,
I would say, further your learning. So I publish a free weekly newsletter right now. It's subscribed
to by hundreds of CEOs, presidents and founders. And it really is on the art of asking better
questions. So you get a question a week to reflect on. There's resources there. If they
jive with you, great. If they don't, just taking the time to reflect helps accelerate
your learning. And then I also have a free personal success questionnaire on my website
that really does talk about the elements that I think help accelerate achievement for us
as individuals. So go check out those resources. They're there for you all. And if nothing
else, you'll get something out of it. Maybe you'll keep us in mind further down the line.
And then when that thing does strike or that idea comes to fruition, there'll be an opportunity
to connect and make more magic happen.
I love that. I 100% support that learning to ask better questions is one of the greatest
lessons I've ever if there's anything good and virtuous, I've learned in education, it
came because I was taught how to ask great questions, you know, and, and so I can't imagine
where my life be had I not learned how to ask for help and ask how things work from
those who are around me. So thank you for putting that resource together. We'll drop
that as well in the landing page and visionaries have an excellent rest of your week and we
will see you on the next episode.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned into vision pros live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll
invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision.