Work. Build. Inspire.
The Coursehack History
I built Coursehack while in university. It was my second year at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada. I don’t know about you, but sometimes, our lecturers/professors speak so unenthusiastically that they put us to sleep. That was me, I slept through a lot of my classes. So, I turned to Khanacademy to help me learn the things that I slept through.
Although I was a sleep-aholic, I was diligent at reading textbooks, I swear, that’s really how I learned. It was one Sunday afternoon, when the semester ended, that I was holding my notes in front of the dumpster. That’s right, have you ever thrown away the notes you so diligently took in class during the semester?
I stopped and looked at my notes and thought “this is a waste”. I could really use this to teach people on Youtube and perhaps make a little money off Youtube ads. That’s when our Coursehack channel started.
We developed courses for economics, discrete mathematics, and programming…
We wanted to make some good money off it, we didn’t (couple hundred at best), but we had a lot of fun doing it though…
But as time passed, we didn’t see the point of it, we weren’t sure how many people we were affecting (although, we were getting hundreds of subscribes and comments monthly, we didn’t see the value back then).
So, we just stopped, and decided to go work in the tech industry once we graduated. Coursehack took a hiatus.
Fast forward 9 years…
I’ve decided to pick back up on Coursehack (and was surprised to see how much it had grown over our hiatus) to share what I’ve learned over the decade. It’s a lot. But after hitting rock bottom and going through a near death experience (subscribe to the mailing list to get the full story), I’m on a race against time to keep learning and keep sharing!
We’re not guaranteed tomorrow, hell we’re not even guaranteed this afternoon. So make the present, make the NOW count!
The Just Cause
If you haven’t read Simon Sinek’s book: The Infinite Game, I highly recommend it. That means, read it! It talks a lot about how culture is like now and the lack of a just cause (a mission).
I’m sure you see companies with mission statements on their walls (hell, you might be working with one right now), but it means nothing to you. You don’t identify with it. It’s just a hollow statement. That’s because they’re not living by it, which doesn’t encourage YOU to live by it.
I’ll be frank with you right now, Coursehack is going to pump out A LOT of FREE content because it’s a COMMUNITY FIRST. But, it is going to be a for-profit economic engine as well in order to propel it to reach more people and change more lives to work, build, and inspire.
Like the story of me standing in front of the dumpster with my notes, when I had my near-death experience, I started seeing things differently. There was a shift. It took some more time after that to develop myself because I was also having girl problems at the time (which was also the same year I hit rock bottom – again, subscribe to the mailing list to get the full scoop).
As I started on the journey of personal development and growth, I realized that over the years, I have learned a lot and accumulated a lot of experiences and skills. If I die without sharing them, that would be the same as throwing out my notes without sharing them. I’m NOT fine with that.
And, through life, I’ve learned a peculiar little secret. 99% of the problems you have in life, it had already occurred for someone else and they have already solved it.
My personal and professional problems I found, were not unique to me! They happened to other people and they solved them! So, if I was smart, I’d look to model them on how they resolved their issues! If you were smart, and you are because you’re reading this, then you’re also looking for models who have solved the problems you have now!
It’s been a long-winded story, but here’s my and Coursehack’s JUST CAUSE:
We’re here to put our head down and WORK, to BUILD our empires and share our ups and downs and INSPIRE you to action!
My friends, I was a candle that was alit by other fires (my role models), our whole entire cause is to light you up (if you’re still an unlit candle) or pour some gas on you (if you’re a fire) SO HARD that you light and fire up the people around you. In that way, I believe you and I can move through life with fulfillment and joy, which so many of us lack today.
How Are We Going to Do This?
I mentioned that we’re going to be a for-profit, economic engine. How are we going to do that? How are you going to pump out free content AND make money?
The main way we plan to do that is through community. I mean it, IT IS COMMUNITY FIRST, we will be releasing free content through our YouTube channels, Medium posts, Instagram, our Facebook page and group, and our blog!
Yes. We will be running minimal ads when we could through those social platforms, but it is not our main revenue driver. Instead, we will be offering more premium courses to the community that focuses on personal development, growth, working, building, and inspiring with productivity and efficiency! In short, for community members who align with our just cause and who have decided to light up other souls, we will help them do that through more premium content!