Meeting the Founder of the Program That Has Influenced My Success
Success is defined differently by different kinds of people. My version of success is probably very different from yours, and it’s important to realize that nobody has the same meaning for success, although one of the most popular that I’ve heard is earning a lot of money in a short amount of time. (which isn’t a bad thing either). The meaning of success to me is growth; being able to look at myself a week after stating goals and patting myself on the back because I achieved those goals. Pursuing your goals is not easy, and it took a lot of hard work and determination to begin focusing on my personal goals, even today it’s still very challenging to make promises to myself and keep them. Growth is a term that I use vaguely, at its foundation, growth can mean a various amount of things. I grow when I write an article, I grow when I code, and most importantly I grow when I complete tasks to better myself and those around me.
I’m sure you’re wondering what amazing program I’m apart of, I am an innovator at The Knowledge Society, TKS for short. I found out about this program in a pretty crazy way, but that might need its article. The Knowledge Society teaches us about emerging technologies and I am constantly shown how to sharpen my skills that we learn along the way. I am extremely positive that I am in the very few percentages (probably around < 1% ) of my entire high school that knows how to create a professional one-pager for companies. Aside from hands-on skills like those, we are taught about mindsets and ways of thinking that not only keep us constantly growing but also even teach us how to work better with others. I have learned about anti-fragility, helpfulness, bias towards action, curiosity, and even something special we like to call Boss Mentality.
Boss Mentality can most likely be seen in all of your role models. Some of my role modes include my uncle, my parents, Nikola Tesla, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, and even Elon Musk! Notice how I said my uncle, My uncle’s personality includes ambition and hard work that I want to one day adopt as well. He started his own business and even graduated college years after he was “supposed to”, which shows he went out of his way to further his education. He is truly an inspiration to me and it pushes me every day to know that he believes in me. At a young age, he always knew I was into technology and coding, and as my dad would try to push me to work with my hands in a different way (construction and such) my uncle always saw the way that I handled tech. The traits observed in the popular names listed above can also be observed in my uncle’s personality. It’s not about JUST being a hard worker, it’s about the curiosity and ambition that comes with it.
The Founder: Navid Nathoo.
On Sunday, February 16th, 2020 I got to meet Navid Nathoo, one of the two founders of The Knowledge Society. There’s a chance that you know this name, because of the large impact that has been caused by the number of students that have been admitted into this program, but you may not, because of the humble approach that Navid and Nadeem (Second Founder of TKS) embrace. They pride themselves in the work of their students but never brag about how they are better than any other institution. I had high expectations for the man that allowed me to study in the field of artificial intelligence and environmental sciences in such a professional manner.
I believe anyone who sees Navid will believe he’s an average guy, he does not carry himself with boastfulness or selfishness and it shows, that is far from the person who Navid is. As a part of an extra session at The Knowledge Society, We were met by the founder himself. The second he walked into the room you could hear the room chatter and someone even joked “he’s real?!” And it continued until he sat down and spoke. First, we were thanked for taking the time out of our days to be there, and I won’t give you what happened second by second, but I should mention some key things that I learned from him, and may one day be beneficial for you.
We had planned to only ask about TKS but what followed in the 3-hour conversation was even better, we spoke about ourselves as individuals and how we can improve with only strive, ambition, and curiosity, when we put our minds to it.
Three important things I learned, quotes by Navid Nathoo Himself.
Insecurities are a social construct, imagine your biggest insecurity, got it? Okay now imagine yourself on your own, with no one around you, do you still have that insecurity?
I didn’t think I’d answer no, but I did. I never realized that the insecurities that I experienced were because of the people around me. If you don’t think this is true I would love to hear your thoughts but it made me think a lot about my insecurities. I made an action item for myself to disregard my insecurities as much as possible, this went hand in hand with the anti-fragility that we had been practicing that past week. It was to stop caring about what people thought, and surprisingly enough I did. The people around me may think that I haven’t changed, but I know that in my own heart I am less insecure. I can share my biggest insecurity with you- it was to look dumb. This insecurity is one my flaws and my action item was to begin to put myself in situations where I look “dumb” where I can just speak my mind and not have to worry about being judged.
The ambition that is held back, makes you lose confidence.
This quote by Navid is pretty straight forward, but to further explain… everyone has certain ambitions and for very few people there are higher ambitions. Ambitions are essentially a strong desire to do something, and when you hold yourself back from doing something huge or important, your confidence lowers because you trick yourself into thinking you could’ve never done it in the first place. This has happened to me a lot throughout my life, and I have learned to take ambition and turn it into motivation. Losing confidence can be a lot worse than you think. Confidence allows you to grow and should never be something you overlook. I don’t think I’ve ever heard about a shy billionaire!
Minimize suffering by maximizing knowledge
Once again, I would say that this quote is a bit self-explanatory but I would like to share my thoughts; I believe suffering in this context doesn’t mean physical suffering but periodic suffering, the suffering that’s caused from working your 9–5 job, the suffering caused by not knowing. Knowledge is power, and I didn’t believe the truth to this until very recently. My uncle had always mentioned it, but I never truly understood until I took a book in my own hands and began to read. Specifically, I began to read “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” and so far it has changed my life. There are so many references in the book about bad habits, and I realized that I align with many of them. I am currently using the book as my guide to getting to the best emotional and mental state. Back to lessening the suffering and maximizing knowledge. Knowledge is what truly makes us rich, its what makes us understand the reason behind having money in the first place and will get you to wherever you want to be. Many successful people pride themselves in three major areas, exercise, meditation, and reading. All of these areas exercise the power of knowledge and are directly influenced by it.
Back to Navid Nathoo:
I was lucky enough to get a 1–1 with Navid and express my options towards what I wanted to achieve moving forward with my life. It’s not easy to put your trust in someone else’s hands but it felt safe, and that’s what I did. I was struggling to figure out whether I wanted to stay at my 5–10 job, struggling to keep up with my responsibilities, wondering what I was doing it for, and getting no answer to that question. Once I expressed my concerns to Navid, He simply said “Quit your job” and I played around with this idea in my head but I could never make that decision on my own, I was making money, not enough to be proud of but enough to pay for TKS, and have something, anything.
Well, I was then asked the question “What do you like to do as a hobby?” I responded with “Code” and Navid pretty much knew what was gonna happen from there. I had already been talking with one of my close friends at this point about starting a web development business, and we had a couple of clients lined up already, So the advice given to me by Navid, was not that crazy at all when I truly thought about it.
I went through with the advice and quit my job the same day, to pursue a business in web development! (shameless plug: If you know anyone that needs a site, let me know!) I had a lot more time for myself after I did this, burned my bridges, and eventually thrived.
Anyway, I’m writing this article not to JUST talk about my amazing upcoming and growth because of TKS, but to explain that there is always room for improvement and learning. If I had not gone to Navid’s session, I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to get a 1–1, and the session itself was especially inspiring and motivating. I was just an average kid that had average grades a year ago, and today I am more than I ever thought I would be, with still so much room to evolve.
Thank you, Navid.
and thank YOU for taking the time to read this article.
Contact Me:
Hey, My name is Dexter Barahona. I’m an 18-year-old Innovator at The Knowledge Society. I’ve been mainly focusing on machine learning and AI. Recently, I have been pursuing my dream to become a full stack developer and will be writing articles on things I find interesting! :)
Email: dexteralxbarahona@gmail.com
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