Next Level Pros - #51: Pilar Deza, President Of The Harvard Club of Peru, Educator, Serial Entrepreneur

Episode Date: November 13, 2023

Welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast with host Chris Lee. In this inspiring episode, Chris sits down with Pilar Deza, a trailblazing serial entrepreneur from Peru. Pilar's journey is nothing short of extraordinary as she defied societal norms and government restrictions to pursue her passion for education. The episode starts with Pilar recounting the challenges she faced when the government forbade teaching English in Peru. She shares her powerful mantra of not obeying the rules and how she navigated through obstacles. Pilar reflects on growing up in Peru and her decision to start a preschool, defying societal expectations. She shares the challenges and triumphs of building a foundation that would eventually impact thousands of lives. Listeners gain insights into Pilar's commitment to social leadership and education. As the president of the Harvard Club of Peru, she discusses her experiences at Harvard's OPM program and her dedication to giving back to her community. Tune in to this captivating episode of the Founder Podcast to witness the incredible journey of Pilar Deza and discover the transformative power of purpose-driven entrepreneurship. Highlights:  "I love problems. I love problems. And that is one of the things that we let the kids learn here. No, because you know, the problems are full of opportunities, to better strategies to be a problem solver." "I believe that God loves me. And that it is very, very important that you feel sure yourself. And then you are all the time in a learning you are a continuous learner, continuous learner." "If you don't engage, if you're not passionate, you have to be passionate and enthusiastic and to vibrate for what you do." Timestamps: 00:00: Entrepreneurship 04:39: Social Leadership 11:19: Perseverance 17:24: Education 23:07: Daily Routines 29:43: Resilience  Live Links:  🚀 Join my community - Founder Acceleration https://www.founderacceleration.com 🤯 Apply for our next Mastermind https://www.thefoundermastermind.com ⛳️ Golf with Chris https://www.golfwithchris.com 🎤 Watch my latest Podcast Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2?si=dc252f8540ee4b05 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@thefounderspodcast

The government said, you cannot teach English. You cannot do this. Wow. And so what did you do to push through that? I taught English. You cannot obey stupid things. Yo, yo, yo, yo. Welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast. Today, I am joined by Ms. Pilar Dessa from Peru. She's joining us all the way from South America. Super excited to have her. Pilar is a serial entrepreneur in the education space, giving back to her community. She runs several different foundations.

Super excited to tell her story. Pilar and I were introduced through my OPM group from Harvard. She is a part of which OPM are you a part of, Pilar? I'm OPM group from Harvard. She is a part of which, which OPM are you a part of Pilar? I'm OPM 30, but right now I'm the president of the Harvard club of Peru. So I need lots of ideas. Awesome. I need all of them. So what, what year?

So OPM 30, what year did you attend Harvard OPM? Oh, I ended in 2001. In 2001. Wow. Yeah. Okay, very cool. A long time ago. Very good. But the best friends forever, best friends forever, we see, I think, twice a year with my OPM classmates. That's amazing. That's amazing. So Pilar, tell us about some of the things you got going on. So I guess tell us a little of your history. Are you originally from Peru? Tell us about what it was like growing up and a little bit of your background. Oh, in Peru, it was very easy to to grow up happy and everything because

you have your no it's it is very it was very like slow motion with your mom and your dad and your sister and everything was no be a peace and love and everything. But what happens afterwards? Afterwards, as time passes, then everything gets a bit complicated. And well, I got married. And at those times, my husband, I have the same husband with five kids. I have five kids.

Oh, that's amazing. With the same husband, five kids with the same husband with five kids. I have five kids. Oh, that's amazing. With the same husband, five kids with the same husband. That's my best win story of everything. And so, but in those times, they didn't want you to work. Yeah. They say that you got married and you were supposed to be a housewife and everything. But as soon as I got married and I said, what am I going to do sitting here? Looking at, I die.

I want to go out. He said, no, because all problems begin when the wife goes out. Because when the wife goes out, they then can do whatever they want with their money. And then they are, no, you better stay here. And he wanted me to stay here. And then I had my mom and my mom said, no, don't, you must not disobey your husband. Yeah. But I, I had a special neuron because, you god loves me and he inspired me because i said no i want i was an english teacher so i said no i want to start a preschool and i begged for permission to go do it in the garage i begged for permission to do it in the garage and there i started. So, and I said, please lend me $5,000 so that I could put nice,

I could put nice the garage because the garage was for three cars, but the garage didn't have any floor, special floor, no? You cannot do it in cement, no? It was very nice and it was all, and it had a roof and everything a ceiling a good ceiling and everything but you cannot and it had no bathroom and there was a garden outside that you can use but i needed needed desperately some money no and he said no you know he gave me permission to do whatever I want but he said you know when women start things they don't finish so and I said just you wait just you wait Henry Higgins just wait huh I love it nothing nothing like a little chip on your shoulder when you have somebody to prove wrong. Oh, wonderful.

And so I started, you know, from the money that I received, I was very thin there because I stayed without. My husband ate steaks and everything. And I had two eggs and a sausage. And I saved all the money. And then I started doing, it was beautiful, beautiful beautiful, but I had no students

no students to come so how did you get your students? I needed students for three years old and four years old or five years old in those ages to come so how did you get them to come? how any of those ages to come. But I had no one.

So how did you get him to come? How did you get him to come? Ah, that's the best story. Because, you know, at the time I thought that you have to tell everything and ask for permission. But I think that it's better not to ask for permission. Because I said, oh, I'm going to send some flyers. And my husband said, no flyers. How are you going to send flyers?

Then what? You don't have anything here. No, no, no. You're not going to send flyers. And I said, then I'm going to put something interesting in the, I'm going to put something very interesting in the, in the magazine, in the newspaper, very little classified that I teach English beautiful to, he says, no, you cannot do that. Then I made a sign that says nido, nido means nest, in Peru they call it nest, nido, they are nests, they are called like nests, yeah, nido, nido means nest. In Peru, they call it nest. Nido, they are nests. They are called like nests, yeah?

Nido, casuarinas. I said, nido casuarinas. And then I said, and I put it with all my hands and with my, each letter of a different color. I, no, it was done and I put it in the garage door. Nido Casuarinas.

And then, you know, he came and he tore it to pieces and he said, how are you putting my house so horrible with this thing? You know what I did? I put my hand, my hat, and I went to knock 36 houses. Wow. From those 36 houses and I said I teach beautiful English

I can teach you and from those from those 36 houses that I said do you have any kids here like that, hi no, I live here because it's like a place, a secluded place where I live in Casuarinas. And there, from there, from the 36, four came.

Wow. And I started with four. Oh, that's awesome. You know, a lot of great journeys, a lot of great entrepreneurs, they start out as knocking doors, going door to door, telling people about their in people's homes or whatnot. And that's where I got my very first start. That's where I made my first money. And so it's cool just hearing a fellow entrepreneur that had a vision, had a dream to go and build this English school. Your husband was kind of like, you know, keeping you down. He wouldn't let you put a sign out. He wouldn't let you do the, the flyers or the advertisements.

And so the fact that you went door to door, just like strapped up your boots went and made it happen. That's a, that's so awesome. That's such a great story. So you started with four people in your, in your English class. And, and what have you grown that to today? Oh, today they have, you know, like 2,000 students. But the thing is that it's like a niche, you know, because I'm very interested in the person as a whole,

not only on the pretend side, not like the Christmas trees that everyone likes everyone likes christmas trees no but you know that they are fake but you love them i love them oh yeah all my houses right now i have declared christmas i have started christmas me too look a clause on my shirt good good and so that and so that's why but but you really the the the christmas tree that is uh that is real huh maybe you don't like it but it is but it is real the thing i i want to to uh to help uh to have more good people on earth now that they are good because they do good because they follow the they walk their talk and they follow their ethos their pathos and logos when they speak and when they live not not whatever, not in the pretend mode. So the education program is more than just teaching English.

You're building people of society. You're building leaders. Yeah. Very good. We do lots of social leadership. Awesome. We have 17 different, because my school is all IB, all international baccalaureate.

I have the four programs of IB. And so that's why it's very interesting because we have international baccalaureate, but we have lots of more things to do, no? We do a lot of social leadership and that's why we have 17, I don't know how to say it, with other schools in the world, especially with the States and Europe, where they go and they come also here. So you do exchanges. Yes, but very interesting exchanges.

Very, very good. We have with England, with the States, with Canada. Now, you know, I am the honorary consul of Georgia, and we're starting a program in Georgia, in Georgia, next to Turkey, to Istanbul. Wow. So, Pilar, so tell me what were some principles, okay? So, you go and you build this business from docking door to door with four students to now you are exchanging students all over the world.

You have thousands and thousands of people that are part of your program. You're building leaders. You're doing all these great things. Like, what was it that, that helped you go and accomplish this great vision? Like, what about you? What, what a part of your journey, like what worked, what didn't work? Like tell us about like some of the principles that, uh, that guided you to your success. First of all principles that uh that guided to you to your success first of all i believe that god loves me and that it is very very important that that you feel sure of yourself and that and you are all the time a learning you are a continuous learner, continuous learner. And it's very interesting because when you really have this, that you want to have good persons, not only intellectually,

the three gardens of human life, intelligence, will will and heart okay so intelligence intelligence will and heart are the three will because you have to have the the will to do it yes the will and persevering people go further than intelligent people uh you know i'm a har Harvard article it's here of lessons of perseverance they came from Harvard to interview me oh very cool so they did an article yeah show it to me oh yeah I'm going to show it

I have everything here to show look right here lessons on perseverance when was this published? Ah, they came here to interview me. Oh, that's so cool. That's so cool.

And you know, I wrote a book. I wrote a book that is called The Business of Life. Awesome. Ah, and I presented it at the Harvard Club in New York. It was like a miracle. Wow. A miracle. That's amazing. I have also here where they taught it. ah and i presented at the harvard club in new york it was like a miracle a miracle yeah i have i have also here where they taught it that's so cool but also i'm a water skier a water skier

nice yeah i love it so so tell me tell me pilar what what were some difficulties that you had to push through along the way? All the difficulties, all the possible difficulties. When I started, I was, wow, full pumped up. Next year, I had like 50 students. It was incredible. I put another classroom in another classroom, a big classroom. Then I had two classrooms, and they were all full.

And everything was God loves me. And you know what happened? The government said, you cannot teach English. You cannot do this. You know, the government, those left-wing horrible thinkers. And so, no English. You are forbidden to teach English in Peru. You have to learn, you have to teach a dialect. I remember.

Tawa, canal, imamanta, pacha. That's what I said. And you were forbidden to teach English. Wow. And so what did you do to push through that? I taught English. I taught English. You cannot obey stupid things i love that i love that so what did what did the government do in response was there was there any no because you know that government didn't have any time to

bother with me but but at at first i'm sure when when you heard that it probably scared you and you thought yeah it scared me maybe maybe i will get in trouble for continue to teach english but you believed in something you believed that what you were doing was good to make your kids go up if you if you if someone is depressed i take i take them to my school that is called Pamplona College in the slums of Lima. And you cry because the kids are right now, they entered in preschool. And right now, you know, where are they? Right now, they are in ninth grade. In ninth grade.

I have two more years. Next year, tenth grade. And then here we graduate at the eleventh grade. Imagine. That's awesome. And so if you see the students that have nothing, how they are, you die.

They speak English. They do this. They do that. They are 10 points plus plus they are going to be like they are going to irradiate where they are for sure yeah so so going and building this this uh this school how has it changed your life? And how have you seen it change the life of others? Oh, that is, what more, that is, this is a business that is the best paid in the world. Because nothing can, because at the end, you cannot eat more than one steak. What more can you do? So I started right now, like last year, a school that is in Paucara, that is in the poorest department of Peru.

Peru is divided into three departments. It's like small states, no? And the poorest one is Huancabelica. People are really, really poor. And there, I've just started a school with a priest, but it's very up in the... No? And they don't want to speak English. They want

to learn Spanish. Well, good for them because I wanted to put Paucará College, but they didn't want to learn. And I respect that. I'm not teaching them English because they were the priests, they are going to kill.

They don't want to learn. They want to learn Spanish. Okay, let's learn Spanish. Maybe in five years they change, no? Their minds. Because the thing is that you open their minds, their brains, and they are 10 points those so circling it back so you said you know you're probably your biggest reason for success

is that you believe that god loves you what are some of your other principles of success oh that that you have to to give the kids you have have to give them all the tools so that they can reach whatever they want, whatever they want, their dream. And never, never, there's always plan

A to plan Z. If this doesn't work, then you change it, then you're in plan B. No? And that doesn't work, then you change it, then you're in plan B. No? And then that doesn't work, but if you have a very good goal, always purpose. We give

our kids, everyone is with purpose. What is your purpose? For what are you doing this? Just to pretend? Just to be what is for you to be successful? What is for you to be successful? You see?

And then what is your purpose? Because if you have a good purpose, if you know where you're going, you can handle anything because you know your purpose, because it's all about purpose and engagement if you don't engage if you are not passionate you have to be passionate and enthusiastic and to vibrate for what you do i agree so having having passion is zero points zero points without no passion i i agree so purpose and passion right like that that So purpose and passion, right? Purpose, passion, and always resilient. There's always a way.

There's always a way. I love that. And then when I finish with all the Peruvian alphabet, from A to C to the alphabet, then I start with the Georgian alphabet and all the signs. But there's always it's always about strategy. You know I'm a strategy case in

Harvard, no? Oh, awesome. Tell me about it. I'm going to show you. Because here I can have the students and tell them that everything is possible. Let's see. Put it in front of the camera there. So the what's the name of the case there? Casuarinas

Educational Corporation. Casuarinas? there so the what's the name of the case there that's why D nuts into that's why D nuts educational corporation everything my super profession Stevenson that's cool that's cool yeah so for those of you guys that are watching to have a case written about you is pretty unique these These cases are written by the Harvard Business School, and so they attack different things. And this one is about strategy, this particular case. Yes, strategy. So when I have a difficulty, you know what I say to myself?

What do you say? If I'm a Harvard strategy case, I will solve it. Right now, no. At 2 o'clock, I will think about it. I will think and meditate about it. But because, you know, I love problems. I love problems. And that is one of the things that kids might learn here, no? Because, you know, the problems are full of opportunities.

Absolutely. To be a better strategist, to be a problem solver, your mind. No, it's 10 points. You don't want to be dead without problems. I want lots of problems. And I tell them because you have them like those balloons without any water or air that you cannot, you can put many in your pocket, but if you blow one, you can only have one. And so you don't see because when you're in this positive place, you can see all the opportunities. For me, I have 40 miracles a day in my life.

At least, at least, everything happens. Everything good happens. I love that. I love the perspective, the fact that everything is happening for you, that everything is positive, and you see these miracles. Yeah, everything. You tell me a tragedy, and I turn it into positive. An opportunity.

I love that. I love that. Because ultimately, it's really how we approach life. If we look at it as just like terrible things happening to us and there's no way out then ultimately we're not going to have a solution versus these are incredible miracles and opportunities and the problems are a good thing and that we can improve our lives so thank you yeah because if you're in a negative side your system doesn't go that you are you have to be full of oxytocin. I love it. I love it. I love it. What are some of your

habits, your daily routines that you do that help you in every day in overcoming? I have a ritual. When I wake up, it's a ritual. I wake up at 6, but I go out of the bed at 6.30. I communicate with my husband from 6 to 6.30. At 6.30, I go to the shower. I have a process of half an hour of getting ready, shower, everything getting ready. And then I go walking. Walking, I walk eight kilometers and how many miles every day. I go to church every day.

But since I go walking, I go to mass every day at 7.30. But I have to be at 7 in front of my house because I have to do quick walking for half an hour. But I do my meditation here in my head. I have my things and I do meditation. No, I do like three meditations. I eat going and back and forth. No, back and forth. Because one hour I walk.

Yeah. In this beautiful place. So you do meditations on your way to church and then wait back. Yeah. Yeah. So this ritual finishes close to 8.30, 8.30 to quarter to 9 I'm there no? I'm back

but it's like a ritual that is 2 hours or so I always do it I always do it and I love it and every time is different you charge yourself I charge myself yeah you charge yourself you have that consistent. You charge yourself. I charge myself.

Yeah, you charge yourself. You have that daily exercise, the meditation, the focus on God, and you do it consistently every single day. That's amazing. I love that. Thank you for sharing that. What are some of your other life hacks that have really helped improve your life and improve your business? Everything is all melted now now right now i'm writing my book about my life that's and i'm on the eighth chapter it has to be 12 chapters and it has to be with

every chapter is everything i have done and how it started. Because the most interesting part is how it's what started. Because this is a preschool. I could be too long here to tell how I started the school, the other school in Los Olivos College. And everything has such a nice story and and and so uh and you know that i got i have a ghostwriter now because the first book i i did it took me four years and i was every time losing my papers and my husband said i'm going to throw everything to the swimming pool and you're going everyone was looking for my for my manuscripts so i said i'm going to have a like like a ghost writer that goes with me and he and he can i can have a real

a meeting with him three hours a week in one day but that is easier said than done because since I have many things, he ended up interviewing my chauffeur, interviewing my cook, interviewing my children. When they, when they, when I had something, for example, I had to go to sign a paper in a notary, no? And then I interviewed the chauffeur because, you know, Winston Churchill said that

nobody is a good sir for his butler. And I said, you ask because I don't want the book to be pretend. You want it to be real? No, it must be real, the real thing. So,

12 chapters, I'm on the eighth chapter. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, we're really excited for when that comes out. We'd love to buy a copy of the book. What are some, besides the school, so obviously you've built this incredible education system, so excited. What are some other accomplishments

that you are really proud of? I know. Then I made, in the pandemic, you know, I had a ranch that was for the students of the schools to go. And they had leadership camp, football camp, whatever camp, cooking camp, everything camp. And the kids came from

the States. They also had the opportunity of going there and it was beautiful. But it was all for camping. It was not chic at all. Yeah. And that was it.

With the revenue of that, I could have water and everything. I'm going to sustain it because it's very expensive here, the water. There, I even had to buy a cistern myself. Wow. At first, I started selling water to the neighbors. But then I said, no, because I said that way, I'm not going to waste to spend

so much money in water but because maintenance it's high maintenance it's beside the the nobody can build anything else it's besides that it's beautiful you die how beautiful it is beautiful it's like a machu picchu experience here. It's awesome. Awesome, awesome. And we teach. We had, like I tell you, cooking, beautiful, because Peru is known for their cooking. The best cuisine, melange of cuisine is here. And so we export chefs and everything.

So they have all the cooking things. It was very good. But then the pandemic pandemic came and i had no money to pay all the maintenance and everything and nobody could go and it was a tragedy.com because here was the worst place where they handled the pandemic the worst no the worst. The worst, yeah. Well, and so it was, you could not go, but for three years, I think, three years. It was a three years loss of everything. Everything was like that. So I decided to make a beautiful thing so that my kids could go. And then they, a suite for everyone and everything. But then only twice a year they go,

and I have to actually tell them so many things to go, to convince them with so many things. Because everyone has their friends and everything, and to have a family reunion there for three days, it's not that easy. You can take them twice a year and that's all. You're going to have all that for twice a year. I turned it to a

hotel and it's a hotel. Oh, nice. I'm making right now a second swimming pool and it is awesome. You can see it in Instagram and you can come. Yeah, you should share with us what's the...

My guess is so interesting because we have a museum really there. We have two museums. It's so interesting because it's Pachacamac. Ranch Pachacamac. You go to Instagram and see. Ranch Pachacamac. That's awesome. Ranch Pachacamac. You go to Instagram and see.

Ranch Pachacamac. How do you spell that? Pacha. P-A-C-H-A-C-A-M-A-C. Pachacamac. Pacha is the earth. Mother earth. No, it's beautiful.

You know that my Harvard friends came, and I made something beautiful with horses, with dancing horses. I made everything. They visit a cooking class. You know, we could organize a trip to Peru with Harvard friends, with the OPMers. That's cool. That's cool. Yeah, very cool cool i love it so yeah we'll uh we'll drop the uh instagram in the show notes so that the listeners can can take a look but uh yeah i

would love to love to plan something with you that would be great yeah that would be great because peru is very interesting you come you good good and you are going to be well taken care because i am not going to you are not going to go around the streets you see i love it i love it so pilar what uh where is a good place for uh the listeners to be able to follow you are you on instagram no i my school is in the instagram and everything i am i don't uh i don't use facebook i am there but I don't use Facebook. I am there, but I don't use Facebook because I don't want to... Really, I think it's a loss of

time. I have a list of people that I love, many, and I connect with them. It makes me waste my time really. I love that. I don't use Instagram also. They made me an interview and they practically forced me to have an Instagram page

because I was going to do a very important thing and they obliged me. But I think there's an Instagram page on me, no? Yeah. No, not an Instagram. I don't know what. A something page, because I think what, what's, what's the name of your book that you're going to be publishing my book.

I don't, I don't have the book. I don't know the name, but the other one is called it's I presented it in, in the Harvard, in the Harvard club. They invited it. They invited everything. But Stephen Spann, the chancellor of the Dwight School, presented it. And he spoke so well that one of the people, one of the persons bought the whole

1,000 books that I had, bought them for their personnel, for their people. And so I have, but for their personnel, for their people. And so I have to edit it again. I'm going to make some corrections and read it again because I have no books. Very good. Well, Pilar, thank you for sharing those things with us.

We'll make sure that we send some of our listeners over to grab a copy of your book, take a look at your wrench, a punch at comic on, on international college. That is Instagram and in everything. And they, and maybe someone wants to come for a year or for six months or for whatever, or to do social work here.

No, I'll take good care of them. Awesome. I love it. I love it. So we'll definitely send them your direction. Before we part, Pilar, what are some last pieces of advice that you can just give to budding entrepreneurs

that are trying to build their own business? What's some advice that you have for them? Once you have a good idea, a good thing, you plan. And every day, a small step toward your plan with perseverance, with resilience, and with passion. It's all about passion, I think. If you don't have passion, forget it. Come here and I'll make discover your passion

because I'm not going to do anything without energy. I feel like a ball of energy, ready waiting for the somersault to water ski. We can see and feel your passion and your energy we appreciate it thank you so much for your time we know it's extremely valuable and uh and and and uh we'll be sure to send people over to your uh over to your instagram and to your school until next time