When you make a plan and then start executing it, you focus on what’s right in front of you. In the case of building a school, we knew more or less what we wanted people to learn, who they would learn it with and how, as well as a few other details. We knew we needed a room, chairs and other stuff. We had a business model too. But we never really anticipated how each individual we take in as a student will impact everyone’s progress.

Without getting into too many personal details I can tell you that apart from a few very pragmatical individuals, most students had high hopes and were nervous about what they were getting themselves into, and they should! After all, This was a school with zero track record on it’s own and what some could consider a non-existent methodology.

It was only natural that, after some time, the pressure of sitting without a job for that long and not be making any money would bubble up and make them question their life choices.

It wasn’t until some people started quitting or considering it that we realised their motives were much too strong for us to simply convince them to stay and bet on us. We couldn’t compete with any of it and yet these unexpected reasons threatened our business and the continuity of the school. Our financial buffer was feeling less and less reliable every time a student would ask me to have a talk.

I can’t tell you how we even survived that year. But the big lesson here is not related to that but to the need any good learning environment has for emotional safety and stability. Without that, people will immediately prioritise other parts of their lives and problems they need to solve first. This also highlighted the fact that younger, more financially dependent students, ended up being the most resilient and focused ones, because of just how much more comfortable their setup was.