
April 10, 2021
How Do You Create a School for the Rest of Your Life? | David Rogier on Business Casual with Kinsey Grant
Check out the Business Casual Episode Page & Show Notes
Key Takeaways
- We tend to have the crazy belief that education stops once schooling stops
- Education is the only thing that no one can take away from you
- “The true gift is the learning, not the grades” Kinsey Grant
- So much of our life is built around seeking praise from others
- To create a startup you have to believe in something other people think is impossible
- You have to go against the grain and unlearn your craving for praise
- In the process, you build confidence and learn about yourself
- To create a startup you have to believe in something other people think is impossible
Intro
- David Rogier (@drogier) is the Founder and CEO of Masterclass
- Host: Kinsey Grant (@kinseyrgrant)
- In this conversation, David Rogier talks about how Masterclass is changing education, and shares the story of how he started the company
Masterclass, a School for the Rest of Your Life
- We tend to have the crazy belief that education stops once schooling stops
- In the past, what you learned in school would serve for your entire life
- Today, what you learn in school can’t prepare you for the rest of your life
- What does a school that prepares you for the rest of your life look like?
- It shouldn’t feel like traditional school
- It should be something you enjoy doing
- At the intersection of education and entertainment
- Masterclass allows you to learn almost any subject from the best in the world
- You can take a singing class from Christina Aguilera, a basketball class from Steph Curry, or a filmaking class from Martin Scorsese
- David started Masterclass by cold calling and emailing potential teachers
- It took him over a year to sign his first “teacher”, author James Patterson
- This was a very tough time for David
- He benefited from working with a psychologist during this time
- Now, they only accept 1 out of 10 experts who apply to teach on Masterclass
- It took him over a year to sign his first “teacher”, author James Patterson
The Importance of Education and How Masterclass is Different
- Education is the only thing that no one can take away from you
- It is correlated with higher life expectancy and income
- Traditional education forces us to pick lanes, emphasizing specialization
- As an addition to traditional ed, Masterclass allows you to explore a wide variety of topics
- Interacting with and learning from people in different fields sparks creativity
- The Academic paper, The Strength of Weak Ties discusses this at length
- “The true gift is the learning, not the grades” Kinsey Grant
- Our education system focuses too much on grades
- Masterclass measures its success in terms of how many people’s lives were changed by taking on of their classes
The Impact of COVID-19 on Ed-Tech
- The pandemic only accelerated the trend of increasing consumer adoption of online classes
- The biggest change that David saw with the pandemic was investors’ interest in the industry, which rose dramatically
- In the past, paid online videos were seen with skepticism
How Starting a Company Changes You
- So much of our life is built around seeking praise from others
- This usually means doing what other people want and conforming to society’s standards
- Going to a good school
- Striving for great grades
- This usually means doing what other people want and conforming to society’s standards
- To create a startup you have to believe in something other people think is impossible
- You have to go against the grain and unlearn your craving for praise
- In the process, you build confidence and learn about yourself
- For these reasons, starting a company can be extremely tough on founders
- Working with a psychologist can be extremely useful