Wish me luck, Tabby urged.
She looked at me with the composure that comes from hours of practice and a tinge of anxiety. It was the big day after all.
You don’t need it, you’ve got this, I encouraged. She smiled and walked on stage.
When I first met Tabby six months before, she was a self-assured, albeit timid public speaker. You could sense her strength of character, she just needed a little guidance and support.
She nailed the pitch and went on to raise $50,000 to build her company, Ghalani.
Tabby was a special one, but her story rings true for the 60 young entrepreneurs we worked with that year.
You never know until you try
Sometimes we just need an opportunity to find out what we’re capable of. Sometimes a small experience can change the trajectory of a life.
If I can pin-point one moment when things really shifted for me, it was participating in a Startup Weekend in Boston in 2010. A friend dragged me to it. I didn’t really know what startups were. We ended up taking 3rd place (and bought Indian food with our winnings).
*That video makes me cringe. But hey, the memories*
Since then I’ve been lucky to have some wide-ranging experiences, from teaching entrepreneurship in Ghana to working on a farm to growing a venture-backed startup.
This exposure has taught me one simple truth: You only learn by interacting with the world.
… And you never know where you might end up. Okay, two truths.
Training through the sea
In large part, my thinking around education has been shaped by Kurt Hahn, the Founder of Outward Bound (OB).
He promoted the concept of “expeditionary learning”, a model of education-by-doing and self-discovery.
His story is interesting in its own right. I’ll share a truncated version below:
Kurt Hahn was a German Jew who spoke out against the rise of Hitler. At the time, he was the founder and headmaster of the Salem School, and he made his stance clear in a letter to alumni:
“Salem cannot remain neutral. I ask the members of the Salem Union who are active in S. A. or S. S. to break with Salem or break with Hitler.”
Salem School focused on character development and Hahn led by example.
He was jailed, naturally.
Only through the appeal by British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald was he released and promptly expelled. He then made his way to Britain where he trained young British seamen who were performing poorly in the war.
His educational model is captured in the quote, “less training for the sea than through the sea.”
He called the program “Outward Bound”, which is the nautical term to describe a ship leaving the safety of its harbor to head for the open seas.
Title: Outward Bound
Year: circa 1973
The call to action
Today, OB offers over 1,000 expedition-based programs and focuses on personal development. They work with cohorts from struggling youth to veterans to those interested in developing wilderness skills, and more.
I first learned about OB in university while researching leadership and educational training. Their structure for experiential learning was so different (and more interesting) than my experience in class. I enjoyed science labs because they had an integrative function, but my greatest education about science came from my coops (internships) working in real biotech labs.
When I came to entrepreneurship, I knew this wasn’t something you could download from a book, you had to go through the gauntlet. So I did.
Which brings me to today
I’m committed to giving more of myself in 2019 so I wanted to find a way to use my strength (marketing) to support an organization with an important mission.
OB offers a model for education that I believe in and which has played a formative role in my own growth — without ever participating in their programming (yet!). Go figure.
As luck would have it, Outward Bound Romania had an opening so here I am in Târgu Mureș (Marosvásárhely).
I’m about to wrap up my first week and am excited to hit the “open sea” with the crew.
Aaron Gerry 