For some, spring serves as a new beginning so this year, I was exploring a number of ideas & initiatives in the education space, which along with health are areas of interest and philanthropic causes I support. One option is just to support the academic organizations directly, another option may seem like a “BHAG” (big hair audacious goal) which would be to actually create a new school for this specific purpose. Montreal is fortunate to have many great academic organizations, so this isn’t about them but just what I think is missing and hurting some students. 

If the following resonates with you as a potential student, or are the parent of a student who’d be interested, but mainly, someone who can help me establish and run it, please let me know. What I’m looking for is someone who really knows all the things that setting up a new school entails and can run the administrative side of it (that can also technically be a teacher but I can recruit those as I develop the curriculum). A quick research indicated registering and accreditation, permits required from the Ministry of Higher Education (Ministère de l’Enseignement supérieur), etc. I do not think this person “needs” to have been an entrepreneur, though they would need to possess entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial traits. I would like all teachers to have been an entrepreneur at one point, even if their venture did not become what others would view as a “success.” 

Purpose

Statement of Purpose: Here to Serve.
Vision (the “what,” what never changes): Helping the next generation of leaders find their course to success and path to happiness. 
Mission (the “how” – what can change over time): Master business by understanding Humanities (specifically: history, psychology & sociology).

The vision & mission of the school are summarized in this video, entitled Master business by mastering history, psychology & sociology which expanded on a course I taught at McGill in 2022.

Timeline: Flexible

Right now I have a full time gig but as I think long term, I’d likely explore teaching. But as mentioned, this may be a better path given my entrepreneurial spirit & principles/values.

Focus 

I’m not aiming to be the biggest or most diverse (in curriculum), but focus on aspiring entrepreneurs with two tracks: 

  • one for product/tech oriented individuals and 
  • another for storytellers who can now parlay the democratization of production & distribution and leverage affordable technology tools to control their destiny.

So, a small school for CEGEP- and university-aged students who aspire to become founders & builders. 

Today we think of Steve Jobs or Elon Musk when we hear entrepreneur, but throughout history, prophets, kings, explorers, inventors, scientists, etc. have all served as the de facto “entrepreneurs” of their respective eras. While business schools teach entrepreneurship, IMHO they are not ideal on many levels.

The Curriculum

Make no mistake about it, this is a “business school,” with a clear unapologetic entrepreneurial curriculum, but it really sets out to create the human being as well. 

I spent my 20s and 30s finding my “course to success” but in my 40s, like many, I became more mindful of charting a “path to happiness,” without which success rings hollow (with success & happiness being fluid, subjective and relative). 

So while the focus and emphasis is business with a foundation that mirrors government requirements for such a degree, it’s really different than what they teach elsewhere in that it would seek to balance:

– business and humanities (examining entrepreneurship through psychology & history)
– understanding one’s self (psychology) & recognizing one’s environment to identify a path to be successful in life (a bit of sociology, anthropology) not just as an entrepreneur, but parent/spouse/sibling etc. 
– a bit more emphasis on culture, communications & relationships (in life and business) as well as ethics, etc. 

The idea is to take young adults but instead of creating generalists, focus on those who have that rare ambition, drive, fuel, stamina, persistence and resilience to pursue & succeed at entrepreneurship, and turn them into well-rounded people who can also become “machines of war – and diplomacy – in business.” Business is rough, we are ill-advising and ill-equipping individuals. I see it every day, I can do something about it.

The courses’ foundation will be academic theory, but rounded out with case studies, actual real life applications: actual investing, building of products and projects, develop stories (documentaries, short films, etc).

Background: I graduated from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia in 1999. I founded in 2005 what would go on to become one of the most successful media companies this century, WatchMojo, which happened to start contemporaneously with YouTube. Right here in Montreal, no less. If you spent any time on YouTube in the past decade, you may have seen our videos, usually in list format, on pop culture. But our DNA is ultimately to inform & entertain audiences. Before/aside from being an entrepreneur I’ve published a handful of books and written thousands of articles on a wide array of topics. I taught entrepreneurship at McGill (2022) and even before embarking on my career, while completing my undergrad at Concordia, as a teachers assistant I gained the confidence of my professors to actually teach undergraduate and graduate students in finance at both McGill and Concordia. My motivation isn’t profit here per se, though I’d ensure this would be a successful sustainable academic organization.

TIA.

Related links
– a short survey.