Alan Watts, the great Zen philosopher
once said: "No literate inquisitive, and
imaginative person needs to go to
college unless in need of a union
card, or degree at the certified
physician, lawyer, or teacher, or unless he
requires access to certain heavy and
expensive equipment for scientific
research." Yet when Watts wrote that in
1972. He couldn't even have imagined what
would be happening in the world today,
with new technologies, rapid change, and
shifts in how companies recruit - that
would all combine to further make
college kind of useless. But the thing is,
college has numerous good points. We grow
up. We mature. We make deep meaningful
connections. We meet the friends and find
the interests that ultimately define us.
So how can we completely re-engineer
college to keep all of the good and
disrupt all of the bad, obsolete points?
Well, we think we have an idea. A new
model that radically rethinks college.
That questions all the rules about how
we've been conditioned to believe
education should look like, and takes
advantage of emerging technologies, new
social movements, new types of knowledge
accessibility and new research on what
truly creates happy, successful, fulfilled
lives. Ready to catch a glimpse? Okay,
before I reveal this new model. First you
gotta know what makes modern college so
absurd in the first place.
Let's start with the length of time. So you
take a teenager and you plant him in a
bubble for 4 years. Same campus, surrounded
by other nineteen-year-olds. Problem is, in
today's world
things are changing at an exponential
pace. Peter Diamandis said that between 2016 and
2022 there will be as many changes in the
world due to exponential technology
growth as between all of 1900 to 2000. Wow.
So we have kids coming out of college with
knowledge that has become totally
obsolete in their four years on campus.
So what if we got rid of this four-year
model? What if instead kids went to
college for one month of the year. And
then spend 11 months in the field. You know.
Doing real work. Like having a job
or starting a business. And then they come
back for one month every year. What if
this did not stop when you're 22? What if it
continued? What if this four years was
stretched out? So you come back one month
every year for 48 years? Sounds crazy.
Hold on, we're just getting started.
Second, what if we got rid of expensive
campuses? Think about all of that wasted
tuition fees? I was stuck in the same
campus in Ann Arbor Michigan for four
years. But the world is so much bigger.
What if we did away with fixed campuses
and instead move this college to a
different city every year?
What if we picked international amazing
cities? Like Berlin, Singapore, Barcelona.
Places filled with culture, places you
dream of visiting? Next.
What if we could drop the price by
ten-fold? No campus means huge cost savings. But
now, let's look at another odd design
about college. They say you are the sum
of the five people closest to you. But at
college you're hanging out with other
19 year olds. What could you learn from
the average 19 year old if you're
19? When I went to college, I remember my
freshman year, the coolest guys were the
ones that could sneak is into a frat
parties or buy us liquor. Not exactly
brilliant.
So, what if we disrupted this? What if age did not
matter? Your friends could be 19 or 30
or 50. We learn from the wisdom of our
elders. They learn from you.
Age becomes irrelevant. But then, there's
the curriculum itself.
Neil Gaiman, the legendary writer, said
of school: " I've been making a list of the
things they don't teach you at school.
They don't teach you how to love
somebody. They don't teach you how to be
famous.
They don't teach
you how to be rich or how to be poor.
They don't teach you how to walk away
from someone you don't love any longer.
They don't teach you how to know what's
going on in someone else's mind. They
don't teach you what to say to
someone who's dying. They don't teach you
anything worth knowing." And you know what
I'm talking about.
Yes, you get a 4-year degree. But does it
need 4 years? More and more of the job related
aspects of college are free online.
Harvard, Berkeley, MIT - their courses are
now online. Just go to edX.org. You
can learn anything from app development
to physics for free. Study the classes
you need for your chosen career, but why
do we waste 4 years on a fixed campus,
hanging out with 19 year olds, trying to
get enough credits to fill some
arbitrary degree that we might never
ever use? The world is changing so fast
many of the top jobs today were not
available as college degrees a mere five
years ago.
So what do you teach? You teach what Neil
Gaiman preached - real-world skills. How to
lead, how to create a vision for your
life, how to be a better parent, spouse,
lover. How to have healthy self-esteem
and emotional intelligence. Goal setting,
crafting a vision for your life,
entrepreneurship. Personal growth skills,
like how to keep fit and healthy,
practice meditation and mindfulness.
These are the skills that truly lead to
happy, successful lives. But you do not
learn this in college. Which brings us to
the teachers. Are the best teachers in
the world today in the world's
universities? Not always,
and here's why. Teachers today have their
hands tied more than ever. To survive as
a teacher in a classical system, you are
often rewarded for the research, much
much more than your actual teachings. So
as a student, you don't always get the
best learning experience. Books offered
are quite dry, and classes not too engaging,
leading you to disconnect and not
truly retain the knowledge you've been
given. Those who have a true passion for
teaching find themselves gravitating out
of the traditional system. The very best
teachers are the ones writing
best-selling books, building their
businesses, speaking at large seminars,
speaking on the Ted stage. They have
transcended the need to be stuck on a
singular campus.
Colleges may have great researchers and
scientists. But not necessarily the best
teachers.
So what if you could learn from these
people? What if your teacher was someone
whose work was so profound, he has
sought 20 million books. Or broken a
Guinness record. Or was a New York
Times bestselling author. The best in the
fields. So let's recap.
No more four years. It's now one month a
year. No fixed campus. You move to a
different spectacular city every year.
No fixed age. Your peers come from all
around the world. And are of all ages. No
outdated curriculums. You learn the skills
that actually matter to happiness and
success and making an impact on the
planet. And your teachers are the best in
the world. But wait,
despite all of this college does have
some good bits. You meet some of your best
friends in the world, you form your
character, find your community, and create
incredible memories. So what if we can
retain and amplify these good parts, and
disrupt and reinvent all the obsolete
parts?
What would education look like then?
We think we have an idea.
Welcome to Mindvalley U. First, you don't
come to this for four years. You come for a
month and then you go back into the
regular world. Now about the campus,
rather than have a regular campus we
take some of the most exciting
exhilarating cities in the world. For
2017 it's Barcelona. Hundreds of students are
coming to Barcelona in June to join this
new type of education model. Next, age: It
doesn't matter if you're 17 of 70.
Everyone moves to this city together.
Using Airbnb and other tools we make the
city our living space. Our playground. The
community works together in shared
co-working spaces, form their own
networking groups, and attend exciting
new classes together. And now about those
classes. These are no ordinary trainings
and certainly no ordinary teachers.
Imagine a faculty that consists of some
of the greatest minds in human
development. For this upcoming beta
project in Barcelona you might take a
class from the likes of Neale Donald
Walsh, who wrote the best-selling book
series 'Conversations With God' which sold
20 million copies. Or learn from Eric
Edmeades, who trains people on the art of
masterful
communication, one of the key skills
that will help you to ascend your career.
Or study with Wim Hof, who holds over a
dozen Guinness records and can teach you
how to hone your mind and body to
superhuman levels. Or study with some of
the world's top entrepreneurship and
personal growth programs. Like Lifebook.
Or learn to hack your mind with Marisa
Peer, the hypnotherapist who works with
A-list celebs and Olympians. Or learn
mindfulness from Gelong Thubten, who trained
the actors of Doctor Strange on Eastern philosophy.
But it's more than just classes.
Throughout the month, we organize meetups,
masterminds, networking groups, volunteer
opportunities. All to allow the students
here to connect and bond and forge
great friendships. After all a Harvard
study said that the single greatest
determinant of your happiness in life
"is going to be the strength of your
social connections". With the social
opportunities we create and the fact
that you can return every year for the
rest of your life to plug-in, grow and
re-connect, you'll never feel lonely
again. You found your tribe. And about
that tribe. It's not just young people. It's all
ages. It's utter rubbish that we designed a
society where we think you're meant to
see the end to college life by 23.
On our campus you meet people of ages. Even
families attending with their kids.
Fathers and sons. Mothers and daughters.
Teenagers and people in their fifties
and beyond. All connecting, learning and
being part of one international tribe.
A curated community of people bound
together by a desire to grow, to connect
and craft epic lives.
This is Mindvalley U. And our first city
campus is in Barcelona.
It's happening this June 2017. Stop by for a
month. Or a week. Or just attend a
specific lecture. But know that no matter
what you choose you're participating in an
experiment to redefine education. In the
past decade we've reinvented the phone.
The car. The TV. Now it's time to reinvent
how we learn. So you can choose to live
an ordinary life. Same city. Same job. Same
style of parenting and relationships and
daily 9-5 as everyone else. Or you can
choose to
question everything.
Welcome to a new
style of education. And a new style of
living. All the information you need to
know is below or above.
Frankly, I don't know where you're seeing
this video. But click on the link to get to
our page with more information and to
apply or get on the wait list. Thank you.