The School of Greatness - 56 How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change with Adam Braun

Episode Date: March 17, 2014

The founder of Pencils of Promise comes on the School of Greatness podcast to discuss the incredible story of how he started, grew and achieved massive results with his organization. This is a powerful story of the power that a single person can make when they decide to follow their purpose and make the change they want to see in the world. Make sure to listen all the way to then end because Adam share some amazing insight that you can learn from wether you're a CEO, or just getting started and finding your passion.

This is episode number 56 with Adam Braun. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. What is up, greats? Thanks so much for checking out this episode today. I've got a very special guest and a good friend of mine.

His name is Mr. Adam Braun, and he is an incredible human being. Adam has an amazing story and journey to tell, and I'm very excited for him to share with you what he's been creating over the last five years with his organization, Pencils of Promise. And it all started with a dream and $25. And with that $25, he built his first school. And now his organization has built over 200 schools around the world. And it's incredible to hear how he's done it and what he grew up with to understand the process of actually coming together and creating all this for himself now.

And his new book is called The Promise of a Pencil, How an ordinary person can create extraordinary change. And I really like this topic. And I love the book. The book is incredible, amazing storyteller. And what I love about Adam is that when you meet the guy, he's got a heart of gold. But you might just say like, he's just an ordinary guy. He's just a, you know, regular person, a regular human being with a big heart. Nothing fancy about him. He's not this super intelligent genius. He's not this freak athlete. He doesn't have these special talents or skills that are so incredible that you can't even

fathom them. He has got an amazing heart. And with his heart, he's created extraordinary change. And it's pretty cool to just witness what he's been able to create by building an amazing team around this idea of education around the world and what he's been able to put together. So I'm very excited for him to jump on here and share his story about how he got started with just an idea in his early 20s and how it's become this huge organization over the last few years and really the growth it's taking now and the process and the steps along

the way on getting there. So if you've got a big idea or even a small idea that you want to make big and you've got a company or you've got something that you want to take to the next level and you don't think that you're the person to make it happen. Maybe you don't think you're talented enough or have what it takes. Hopefully you gain something from this interview and really see that you can create anything you want, whatever it is you're passionate about and whatever it is that's going to make you most fulfilled if you really believe in it and take the action necessary to make it happen.

And there's a lot of stories and mistakes and falls along the way that Adam has had and continues to have, but it's all part of the bigger story and the journey. So I hope you guys enjoy this episode as much as I enjoyed interviewing Adam here on the School of Greatness. So let's go ahead and dive in with Mr. Adam Braun. And what is up everyone? Thanks again for sticking on for the School of Greatness. We've got a special guest and a great friend on today. His name is Adam Braun. What's up, Adam? How's it going? I'm doing great and I'm super excited to have you on because of a couple reasons. One, we became friends a couple years ago.

Actually, I kind of like stalked you in person and said, hey, I want to get involved in what you're doing. And you probably thought I was full full BS and just like everyone else. In the last couple of years, we've really built a great connection. Working together, building schools for your, for your organization, Pencils of Promise and Adam's organization. You know, I used to call it a nonprofit, but I guess it's really a for-purpose is how you call it, right? Correct, yeah. Which I think it's pretty cool.

It's not the norm. And you've built over 150 schools, is that right? Or is there more now? Yeah, now we recently just inaugurated the 200th school. Oh my gosh. So it's a huge, huge way

from where I started a little bit more than five years ago, which is $25 trying to build one school. But it's a testament to good people, yourself included. So we're excited about it and obviously big things to come as well. Yeah, 200 schools since what year? Has it been like five years now? Yeah, it's been a little bit more than five years since I started the organization. But we actually didn't even open our first school until the end of 2009.

So it's really been more like four years that we've built the 200. Wow, it's amazing. And you're building it all over the world in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Yeah. And are your plans to continue growing to other countries? Eventually. I mean, right now we've decided that we're going to go really deep in our existing countries. So we're going to focus on one country per region, Guatemala in Latin America, Ghana

in Africa, Laos in Southeast Asia. But after 2015, we're going to look to expand to new countries. Nice, nice. Now, I want to talk about your story and your journey and your book, which is called The Promise of a Pencil, How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change. And I wasn't too sure what I was going to think about this book, and then I started reading it. And it reminds me a lot of The Alchemist, believe it or not. I don't know if you read that book. That's literally the highest praise that you could give me.

That's one of my three favorite books it's one of the first books that i recommend to people and i probably sent it as a gift to 10 different people literally once i read the first couple chapters i was like this is modern day alchemist and uh very cool what you're what you're up to so there's there's a couple things i want to dive into. You've got an interesting story. You were raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, correct? Yep. Which is one of the richest areas in the country. There was an experience when you were in, I believe it was high school, where your family brought in a couple of new people to the Klan. Can you talk about that?

Yeah, sure. So I was born in New York but raised in Greenwich. My parents basically were living in the city, and I guess they put together like a little rubric and said, all right, what are the things that are most important to us, and where do we want to raise our kids? And the number one priority for them was education, in particular public education,

because they didn't have the money to send their kids to private schools. So Greenwich had the best public education system. So that's where they moved us when I was about four years old. And so, yeah, I mean, I grew up in a really affluent community. And, you know, one of the things that a lot of people I don't think realize is actually how diverse Greenwich is as a town. You know, the stuff that gets portrayed in the media are the massive mansions in back country and, you know, the homes of hedge fund managers and CEOs. But it's actually about 80,000 people live there. So you have a lot of service industry people.

There's actually three projects in Greenwich. And so, yeah, yeah. So there's a lot of diversity, but you certainly see the top of the top. And so I was exposed to that because I played every sport possible as a kid, but basketball in particular. And so, you know, my teams would be consisting of kids that lived in projects and kids that lived in, you know, 20,000 square foot mansions. And so you saw the diversity and my dad was an immigrant and,

you know, just kind of instilled us, in us, a sense of values. And just not to take anything for granted. And, you know, I talk about it in the book, but he was the intimidating dad because he wasn't afraid to call kids, you know, out on their spoiled nature, just like screaming at us when we're 10, like, stop being such, you know, effing buzzies and just getting in our face. He was the intimidating dad. But when I was in high school, I was playing really competitive AAU basketball. And

one weekend, we'd had tons of kids crash at our house to head to weekend tournaments on a Friday night. And these two boys stayed with us over the course of a weekend and just got to know them really well. And it turns out they were from Mozambique. Originally, both came from absolute, absolute poverty, but they weren't brothers. They were childhood friends who were playing on the Pan-African games on the Mozambique national team. When they were 14 and 16, an American coach saw them play, promised them a great American education if they could scrape together pretty much all the money that their families had. And they came over and it was a farce. It was one room in the back of a rundown church in South Philly.

A woman came in, passed out books and left for the day. And it was really a front for a basketball team where the coach would essentially get paid by Nike or Adidas or whatever shoe company would guide these star players to the college that was sponsoring them. And then eventually, hopefully, if they got into the NBA, they would like sign a contract with them. And there's been books written about this. And it's kind of the dark undercurrent of the AU system. But, you know, these two boys were in that situation and, you know, living in a really dangerous environment, getting no education. And long story short, they asked us to take us in after they saw our public high school, because that was kind of their American dream. And it really resonated with

my parents and our family and kind of came down to a personal choice where my parents asked me, you know, you're going to have to chaperone them and tutor them and assimilate them into this community. And they're going to become a part of our family. And it was a no-brainer. They were just incredible kids. And so when I was about 17 years old, we added two boys to my family who were originally from Mozambique. Not only did it change the dynamic of our family, but it entirely changed my personal worldview because I started to realize the path that they had taken was the path that people have taken over generations that wanted to strive for a life that was more than the one that they were born into. And so, you know, it also just opened my eyes up to how many cultures and people exist outside of that small bubble that I had experienced up until that point. You know, growing up in Fairfield County, Connecticut, really only seeing New England.

Right. that point, you know, growing up in Fairfield County, Connecticut, really only seeing New England. And so that was kind of the first step, I would say, in what led to this aspiration to live a very different life from what was the norm. Right. Yeah. It's interesting because I grew up with seven different exchange students from all over the world from ages five to 14.

And it was, for me, an amazing experience. Again, growing up in a small town of Delaware, Ohio, with like 30,000 people, mostly white suburban area, and getting to experience other countries without actually having to travel, with their language, their culture, their foods. They'd cook for us and all these things. It was just an amazing experience.

So I can kind of relate to that. And then reading in your book, and we've talked about this but you you really said when you were like in middle school and high school you wanted to be a billionaire you wanted to be rich you wanted to have mansions and the yachts and the girls and all that stuff that was kind of the dream right um and you went to you were on track to, I guess, achieving that. You went to Brown to play Division I basketball. But then something happened where you actually went to semester at sea. Isn't that correct? Yeah, yeah. I was a sophomore in college playing college basketball and studying economics and sociology and a third major around entrepreneurship. And I just saw this film called Baraka one night that was

kind of like planet earth before planet earth, you know, the first exposure to just how beautiful film could be, but it showed cultures rather than, you know, animals or something like that. And I was just blown away. And I thought, if these are actual scenes that are happening somewhere in the world right now, if this isn't scripted, I need to go see this with my own eyes um you know i talk about this in the book but you know sometimes you just have this inner voice um that compels you uh and almost kind of it's your future self speaking to your present self saying like follow me um this is who and what you are meant to be and and i just couldn't turn away from that voice and um saw a scene in the movie in particular that really moved me that was shot in Varanasi, India. And a friend of mine had just gotten back from semester at sea and was just

raving about how much it had changed her life. And I looked at the itinerary and they were going to India and I thought, this is it. I'm going to go to India, go to Varanasi and also get to, you know, see all these other incredible places around the world. And while on semester at sea, two really pivotal things happened. One, my ship was hit by a 60-foot rogue wave about 800, 900 miles from land. And it's the only time it's happened in the history of the voyage, but we had what can only be described as a certain death experience. And so I kind of saw my life coming to an end and then, you know, fortunately survived through it. And so I had a series of very powerful realizations and,

you know, again, just kind of changed my outlook pretty profoundly because of that. And then the second thing was I had a habit of asking one kid per country, what do you want most in the world? And asking them to write it down on a piece of paper because on semester, it's like everyone does like one thing per country, you you know they collect a beer bottle or like a funny hat or they get a t-shirt or they take a photo of like a beanie baby in front of a landmark and my thing was I'm gonna have kids from each country write down their interests what they would want if they could have anything in the world and I expected to get the answers that I wanted when I was a kid which was like a a big house, a fancy car, you know, the latest technology.

And the answers were just so different. And the most powerful one was finding this boy who was begging on the streets in India, northern India. And I just thought, what would this kid want if he could have anything in the world? And so I asked him and his answer was a pencil. And it just blew me away. And, you know, I kind of started to ask why. And I ended up learning that he had never been to school before and that that was the reality for many, many children around the world.

Right now the number is 57 million. But there's another 250 million children who attend school but are unable to, you know, read and write their own name by the end of fourth grade. And so this idea that children around the world lacked access to quality education, which was the one thing that had lifted my family out of poverty over several generations, it just really struck me. And so I gave him my pencil. He lit up. And I became obsessed with backpacking and being in the developing world. And I had always been entrepreneurial.

I'd start little businesses or work side jobs, take my money, get a one-way ticket to some foreign country, and I'd backpack for several months with not much more than maybe a week, week and a half's worth of clothing and a journal and an iPod to listen to music and a fistful of pencils. And I would just make my way into communities, live with those communities, and learn from them. Now, that's incredible. Now, what was one of the, you said you had a couple of realizations from the near-death

experience. What was the first one or the most profound one? You know, the most profound one was when you face the end. You know, I don't want to say that your life flashes in front of your eyes. It's not like, you know, I suddenly had scenes of pivotal moments throughout my life happen. But there was this sense of weight, a sense of gravity to why I existed and what had happened up until that point. And you certainly, I mean, I can only speak for myself, so I'll say I. And you certainly, I mean, I can only speak for myself, so I'll say I, but, you know, I immediately started to pray and kind of asked this question of, like, why am I here and why is this happening?

And why would my life have even been here in the first place if this is meant to be the way in which I'm going to perish? You know, a 21-year-old man lost at sea. And I had this incredible feeling come over me of stillness and calmness. And it was a recognition. It was like suddenly I had knowledge that I did not have before. And it was that I was here for a purpose. And that purpose was not to perish at sea. I just could not both rationally and emotionally justify the positions that my life had put me in, that they would add up to me disappearing that day. And I suddenly knew that I had more to do. I had more to see.

I had more to become. And I didn't know what that purpose was. But the big recognition that I had coming out of that wave experience was that I was here for a purpose. It wasn't a random act that I existed. And from that point forward, most of my focus, especially in the months right afterwards, was around trying to figure out what is my purpose. And that's really what guides me and the work that I have done ever since. Now, did the semester at sea continue after this, this day? Yeah. So you had another three months or something or how did that work?

Yeah. Yeah. About that. Um, so we, we, unfortunately we missed the first two stops cause they kind of had to dock the ship and the nearest land, which is Hawaii. Definitely not a bad place to be technically shipwrecked, but they ended up miraculously keeping the semester going. They, you know, we missed Korea and Japan, but we ended up going to China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, India, Kenya, South Africa, Brazil, and Venezuela. So a real testament to Semester at Sea. I mean, it's an incredible program i couldn't um speak about something more highly than than i uh would about semester at sea and so we ended up traveling to eight more countries wow and how many um how many people removed themselves from the semester i think there was about 20 maybe out of 700 plus wow um so most of those were actually the elderly

passengers you have about uh i, 40 or 50 people that are in their 60s, 70s, even 80s that attend just to see the world and get exposure to college students. They kind of like mentor you. You know, they have this wisdom. On my trip, they call themselves the ancient mariners. And, you know, a couple of them said, all right, I'm going to get off here. And then a handful of students. But, you know, I will say in an environment like that, you can either see people kind of almost like going into mutiny, or you can see them banding together. And what I found is that people come together in the greatest moments of adversity. That's when people feel most strongly connected. You know, like, if you think back to 9-11, I've never felt more patriotic in my life.

I've never wanted to have a flag in front of my home. I've never wanted to, you know, hug somebody more than when it felt like I was under attack and the people that I cared about were under attack as well. And so that's kind of what you saw happen on that ship, I mean, literally within a few hours, you know, even though everyone was in a bit of shock about what happened with this wave and all, you know, students were just on their own fixing the ship, you know, picking up broken glass, putting books back in the shelves of the library. And so we kind of had this invincible feeling like, all right, if we survive this, we can go through anything. And I've definitely had certain people that spend time with me and it's, you know, like the first time I met them and we go on a two hour car ride at the end, they'll ask me outright, um, have you been through a certain death experience? And, you know, it's happened now

enough times for me not to be surprised by it. But when I, when I asked why their reaction is always the same, they say like, look, you, you speak about things with a lack of fear because it seems like you're not concerned with the same things that most people are who view their mortality as kind of imminent. And strangely, I almost am so familiar with the potential imminence of my own mortality that it kind of forces me to embrace every single day, every moment. As cliche as that might sound, it's true. I really, I really,

I mean, have an immense sense of gratitude for every day. Cause there was one point where I wasn't sure that I would get tomorrow. I love that approach. And I, I like to take that myself every, every moment I'm with someone, every opportunity, I'm just like, tomorrow's never guaranteed. What if, if I don't wake up tomorrow, did I give my all today? Did I give my best? Did I love the most? Was I honest? Was I true? And would I be proud of myself? So I think that's amazing what you've been up to.

And so after this experience, you then come back and you start working though, right? Yeah. I mean I had angled myself and my career towards making a lot of money in finance. And as much as I loved backpacking and traveled to like 20, 30, 40 countries in that period of time in semester 13, the subsequent couple of years,

I got some very sound advice from people that said, like, look, Adam, I know you want to live in this one rural village in Thailand or Cambodia or wherever else and just build one school and be there forever. But you have the potential given your, you know, kind of trajectory thus far to work at the really, really high levels of business. And, you know, each of them kind of advised me pursue that path and then use those learnings and that, that knowledge and potentially that network and resources to have an even bigger impact on the world. And so I came back, went through consulting and investment banking interviews, had some really amazing offers at really amazing companies.

And my kind of dream job was to work at Bain, one of the top consulting firms, because they're known for having the number one training program for post-college students who then go on and start their own businesses. And so fortunately landed an offer there in the New York office. And so I went to work at Bain and company on the consulting side and just went through this incredible, incredible training work with absolutely brilliant people, saw the inner workings of Fortune 500 companies, had exposure to how the best businesses in the world were run and even improved upon. And I realized about a year, year and a half in, two things. The first was that the nonprofits I was passionate about weren't run with any of the business acumen that I was used to seeing. And I started working at hedge funds when I was 16. And so the language that I spoke, the sense that I was used to seeing. And, you know, I started working at hedge funds when I was 16.

And so the language that I spoke, the sense of what that I had around business, it was kind of weird and frustrating to me that these humanitarian issues weren't being approached with the same commitment to results. You know, like in the nonprofit space, it's okay to just make people feel good. You know, somebody gives you 50 bucks and like, that's the end of the relationship because now I feel good because I gave you 50 bucks. And it's almost assumed that whatever you do with the 50 bucks is good. But when you're actually inside of the organizations, they're incredibly inefficient. And it's because they're usually based on passion. They're not based on a commitment to results. And so that was one thing that I realized. The second was that in a year and a half of living in New York as a young 20-something-year-old single male,

I was living what I thought was this great life. I had this sick apartment and access to awesome parties and dating different girls and had great friends around. But I wasn't connected to anything that wasn't in service of myself. And after about a year and a half, I started to feel pretty empty about it and realized that Bain lets you take what they call an externship. You can leave for six to nine months, work for anyone else and come back. And I decided that I was going to use that time exclusively for service to others and thought I would volunteer for an organization in Cambodia. And then I went to the New York Philharmonic one night. I'd never been to a symphony. And just

this guy walked out on the stage to play a piano concerto. And I just watched him crushing these keys. And he was just exuding so much passion into this instrument and like you know however many hundreds of people in the room you're just mesmerized by it right and I remember looking at him and distinctly thinking that's what I want I just want to feel that passion for anything in the same way that he feels for his piano for this instrument and I want to feel alive the way that he must when he connects to this thing. And this name literally popped in my head, Pencils of Promise, because I'd always passed out these pencils and promises, but an oath and a commitment and latent potential, like this person has promise.

And it was just this perfect name. And it kind of hit me in that moment, oh, gosh, I can start something with the externship and I can go build a school and I can leave a tangible footprint for good. And I went home, wrote like everything that I could on paper, you know, like an original mission statement, a charter manifesto, all these stupid fundraising ideas, all the people I would contact wherever I'd travel that I thought I could try to build the school, the very first one. And ultimately was really committed to building the first school and dedicating it to, in particular, my grandmother who was turning 80 and is a Holocaust survivor and had just been through

so much so that I could be in my position. I thought, let me live in service of her, in particular, honoring her, carrying forward her legacy, and then ultimately educating children in poverty who don't have access to high-quality education. So that was the idea, the impetus, and I went to the bank a couple weeks later, said what I have to do to open up a bank account, and the lady said at least $25. I was turning 25, so I said that's a good karmic sign. And put $25 in a bank account, and Pencils of Promise was off and running trying to build one school. And that was late 2008.

Amazing. And in your book, you said when you were working the job that you scribbled in your spiral notebook. I guess it could be a spiritual notebook too. Yeah. I think that's applicable. You said, I wish I was more interested in this work, but it's just not for me. Find your passion and you'll find your strength.

I think that was pretty interesting. I don't know if you wrote that around the time you saw this piano player. It was just before. Yeah. So it sounds like you had a lot of signs leading you towards creating something, but you just weren't sure, I guess, how it was all going to play out. You didn't know when you opened up a $25 bank account that you'd have 200 schools now within five years. And, yeah, it's pretty amazing what you've created. So how did the process begin after this bank account opened?

What was the next step? What was your biggest challenge? What was your biggest fear in really getting a school up and running and then growing it? After you did it once, how are you going to do it again? How are you going to make it better and build it into this huge organization that you have now? The truth is, at the very start, I didn't have any ambition to create a large organization. This was really a personal project.

And, you know, I find a lot of great entrepreneurs, you know, that is their initial drive is they find a personal issue that they feel like if they address it, it'll actually improve their own life. You know, you look time and time again, you know, a person doesn't have a place to stay. And so they go out and they create Airbnb. Guy wishes that his buddies had access to like black cars on command to roll around like one event. So Uber gets started. You know, another person doesn't have like a healthy sports, you know, conscious like nutritional drink. So they create one and then it goes on to actually address a problem for a lot of other people. And so that's really how I started. It was a very personal issue. I wanted to build a school. I wanted to dedicate it to my grandma. I wanted to change one community.

And that was it for me. I mean, I really thought I was going to build one school during my externship and I was going to come back and work in private equity and make a ton of money and use that money to help fund one school a year that would be like this little thing that I would run. And, you know, like anything else, I just stay up on like Googling and emailing anybody that I could, you know, just saying, this is my name, I'm trying to build a school, etc. And, you know, I find, and this is one of the big pieces of the book, is that if you speak the language of the person that you seek to become, that will really, really move you in the direction that you want to be. I'll talk about that for a second.

Sure. What do you mean by that? Yeah, I mean, I find a lot of people, they speak in either the past or the present. So when you say, hey, default conversation, what's your name? What do you do? Where do you live, et cetera? They're either describing what they've done previously, their accomplishments, where they went to college, who they know, or their present situation. This is where I live. This is where I'm working.

And that's because you're comfortable in that conversation. You're familiar with it. But for anyone to create anything of real large significance and meaning and merit, you have to be willing, one, to be extremely uncomfortable. You have to live in a world in which risk is a part of your daily activity. And the way in which that starts to happen is when you speak in future tense. And so for my own example, I got really bored of meeting people at a bar and them saying, what do you do? And my answer being, well, I'm a 23-year-old management consultant. That's a really boring conversation after about the fifth time. And the truth is, I didn't want to be a management consultant. I wanted to be somebody who builds schools internationally for children in rural communities. That's who I hope to become. And so I literally just started speaking the language of that person, not my present self, but the future self that I aspire to one day become. And so instead of, you know, if somebody said, Hey, you know, what do you do? If I met him at a bar, I'd say, well, right now I work in consulting,

but one day I'm going to go start an organization that builds schools for children in the developing world. And immediately the questions that they would ask almost forced me to figure out the answers and then live my way into them. And so they would say, oh, well, how are you going to build schools? Where are you going to build schools? And in the process of verbalizing those answers, it really moved me in the direction of making them into a reality. And oftentimes they would say, well, I know this guy or this girl, you should really talk to them. And then I'd say, sure. And all of a sudden, these opportunities would become unearthed. And so, you know, what started with an idea, and I really believe wholeheartedly that ideas, you know, a lot of people say, like,

your ideas matter. I believe they have matter. Like, they're actually physical. There's weight to an idea. That when you put an idea, you know, when you speak a language about something, you put it into the world, it actually has a physical existence that starts to move people and, you know, has a ripple effect across lives and eventually like the whole universe. And so what I found was that as long as I was speaking the language of the person that I wanted to become, my life would move in that direction. And so what started with a conversation about building one school once the first school got built and it's so there's a lot of you know detail into how that

happened but the truth was just putting myself in situations uh where there was uncertainty and uh i love uncertain situations you know anyone who knows me i do a lot of speaking now and I've never written out a speech. I mean, I get out there and I know the framework that I want to talk about, but it's way more authentic and it's way more fun for me. And the insights that come out of kind of delivering something off the cuff or figuring it out in the moment, they're way more just, they're driven by a lot more truth than something that is pre-prepared. And so I would, you know, fly out to Laos, knowing a couple people, get on a motorbike, get my backpack, and, you know, just start to chat with people on the ground and figure out and build relationships.

And so by the time the first school got built, you know, I was coming back to my job at Bain from the sabbatical. But what had happened was all of these young professionals in New York that came to our early events, which were, you know, $20 to $50 kind of open bar parties to help raise money for this first school. They said, I've been looking for something like this. You know, all the principles that you're describing, building this organization on, this is what I've been searching for. And so I would sit with them and ask them, well, what do you do? So I understood their skill set. But much more importantly, I'd say, what do you love? You know, what gets you excited?

What do you wish you could work on? Because when you have a volunteer team, you know, obviously there's no monetary incentive. You need to give people an experiential incentive. And that's usually learning and growth and fulfillment. So, you know, if you were a junior account manager at a top marketing agency and you're pretty much shuffling paper all day, well, I would say, well, if you love marketing, how about you help build our brand? How about you actually create our language?

And so you had all these kind of 24 to 26-year-olds or younger who were doing very junior responsibilities at top-notch companies like, you know, Goldman Sachs or myself at Bain, people from Deloitte and McKinsey, Columbia Law School, Harvard Business School, suddenly you had the opportunity to be a senior leader at a little volunteer for a startup. And so I drew from the best talent and gave total ownership to people. I said, never use the term you or I, It's always we. This is not your organization. It's our organization. And I still really hammer that in with anybody, including you, Lewis. I mean, if I ever heard you say, yeah, I probably said it to you. If it's like, oh, you guys are up to this, it's no. You've built multiple schools now. You are very much a part of Pencils of Promise. And so I think it should be we. You have ownership in this as well.

And so things just started to scale from there. And eventually I chose to leave Bain and start working out of my apartment and had a couple powerful signs that I saw around me that almost seemed like direct messages saying, this is what you're meant to go do. And I couldn't turn away from those things. direct messages saying, this is what you're meant to go do. And I couldn't turn away from those things. And so I left early 2010 to try and build a real significant organization in the space. Now, let's say for those listening, maybe I've got a lot of different wide range of listeners

from successful entrepreneurs to people who listen to the show because they want to be inspired by each guest and they want to be inspired by each guest and they want to learn something new. Now, let's just say there's someone listening who isn't satisfied with where they're at, whether it's career, relationship, whatever it may be. They're just kind of like, oh, this doesn't feel like my calling. What are some steps? And you talked a little bit about it, but what are some steps that they can take right now or what are some things that they can reflect on or write about to start discovering what they should be doing and how to do it?

Yeah. The book is written in a way, I've read a lot of personal stories of entrepreneurs that I really admired. What I found was a lot of the books, they told incredible stories that were very inspiring, but they didn't really show you how you could live your own way into a similar path. And so when I wrote the book, I purposely wrote it in 30 very short chapters, each of which has a core story, but is titled with a mantra. And those 30 mantras are all things that I've had written on my walls at various points in time or in my journal. And they've really served as kind of guideposts for me. And so anyone that reads this book, you know, these 30 mantras collectively, it's like the blueprint, the roadmap that you would follow to get kind of unstuck from whatever position that you're in to discover a sense of purpose and then turn that into a full-time movement, organization, or business.

And the first one is that you have to get out of your comfort zone. For me, that meant quitting the basketball team at Brown, breaking up with my girlfriend, going on semester at sea, and not telling a single friend that I was going so that I was forced to go alone. And truthfully, I mean, I'd been living a very comfortable, happy life. But you don't really challenge yourself if you're content and if you're satisfied. And that's a difficult kind of paradox for a lot of people, I think, to really grasp. It's like, you know, happiness and meaning are two very, very different

things. They're not, you know, the same. Just because you're happy doesn't mean that you've discovered meaning. And, you know, there's some very unhappy people who live very meaningful lives. And so you have to one, kind of make a choice. And I chose meaning, you know, I saw happiness as a byproduct of finding meaning. But I didn't say meaning as a byproduct of finding happiness. And so in order for me to, you know, choose to find meaning, and, you know, you can ask the question, like, how does, you know, someone find their calling, you know, choose to find meaning and, you know, even ask the question, like, how does someone find their calling? You know, in itself, a calling almost refers to someone who has discovered their sense of purpose and meaning. So that first thing is you just you have to leave the constraints of your comfort zone.

And that might mean, you know, taking a month long trip somewhere. It could mean doing a weekend away by yourself in the woods. It could mean breaking up with your boyfriend or girlfriend because your relationship is stagnant and it's not pushing you anymore. It could mean leaving your job. And in my case, it meant leaving my kind of home school community, my team, my comforts, and traveling into the developing world. And so that's the first thing, because then you put yourself in an environment to discover not what you are, but who you are. The second one is ultimately that you have to acknowledge that you have a purpose. And I think it's something that not everyone fully grasps. But you didn't really acknowledge that until semester C, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, I lived a life like anybody else does, you know, just trying to kind of get through the next week. I had goals for myself. You know, I lived a life like anybody else does, you know, just trying to kind of get through the next week. I had goals for myself. You know, I wanted to get into a good college. I wanted to play a Division I sport. I wanted to get a good job. I wanted to have a nice house and a family one day. But those are kind of tent posts that, you know, you can trend towards. But that's very different from discovering your purpose. And so the first step in discovering a purpose is to

acknowledge that it exists and that it's out there. So I always advise people, one, choose to get out of your comfort zone. In the act of leaving your comfort zone, understand that you have a distinct purpose. You exist for a reason, that it's not a random act. And once you know that you have a purpose, when you fully absorb that, the next one that I talk a lot about is you'll put yourself in environments where you'll have these lightning moments. And they're rare. And you can't force them, but it's almost like falling in love. You know, you have to be in the right place to meet the right person. And my lightning moment was that night at the symphony when that guy played the piano and it hit me like, oh, I want to be that passionate.

And suddenly, you know, all these little ideas, these little experiences that I had had compounded into one big idea, this one like almost revelation personally. And so I call those lightning moments. And when you have that lightning moment, they scare people because it's like, oh, man, if I pursue this, my whole life is going to change. What if I fail or whatever? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I know your story really well. And you had it all, pro athlete, all these great things. And then when that injury led you to being on a couch, I'm sure that as you were surfing LinkedIn, suddenly you had this lightning moment that was like, oh know, I'm sure that as you were surfing LinkedIn, suddenly you had this, you know, lightning moment that was like, oh man, I can, I can win at this and I can help a lot of people in the process, but it was going to force you to kind of drop your identity as a pro athlete and, you know, move into a different version of yourself. And, you know, a lot of people are

scared of that, but I, you know, I think both you and I are living examples of this. When you embrace that lightning moment, good things will happen. Even if it doesn't end up being the massive success that you expected, something extraordinary will come of it. And then the last thing that I would say is that you should never take no from someone who can't say yes. And this was a lesson that I learned. It's one of the chapters about how we got our website built. And at the time, we had a really small organization. Maybe we had raised collectively like $100,000 or something. We were in an office that was in the back of a women's garment manufacturing company. So no joke, our shared conference

room where I would have meetings with people was wall-to-wall lined with granny panties, like huge women's underwear. That's how desperate and small and startup we were. And we had no paid staff besides I was taking a ridiculously small salary and everybody else was a volunteer at all these high school interns. And we needed a big break. And everybody else was a volunteer at all these high school interns. And, you know, we needed a big break. And I knew that having a world-class website would give us this image that we were a bigger organization than we were and that we would kind of fill out, you know, the shoes of our website into becoming a bigger organization. And a guy that I had gone to high school with was working at a great company, a digital agency, and he offered to help out kind of quarterbacking freelancers with the little money that we could spend on our website but he kind of opened the door to me and said you know something

our ceo is a really philanthropic guy maybe our agency could take it on but we don't do any websites for less than six figures but maybe he'd be interested in selling and oh that little kind of crack in the door got me obsessed with the idea that that company, AgencyNet, which did, you know, like Bacardi's website and, you know, major car company websites was going to do our little nonprofits website. And, you know, I just, I got this one phrase in my head, that mantra, I just couldn't let it go. Never take no from someone who can't say yes. And I knew that my friend Alex could not say yes to me because he wasn't running the company. He couldn't say, sure, we'll put a couple hundred thousand dollars of free resources into your work.

But I knew that the CEO could say yes. And so I was relentless about getting in front of him. Eventually, after the guy blew me off for like a month or two, I told him I'd fly anywhere in the world. If he would just give me 30 minutes, I'd get on a flight and meet him anywhere. And at that point, the CEO took a call with me. And within four days, they had committed $150,000 of pro bono resources to build out our website. And that guy ended up not only building a website, but joining our board of directors

and becoming a huge personal mentor for me personally. And so that's the last one. If I would advise somebody, it's like you have to figure out who the decision maker is and just be relentless about making sure that if someone is going to say no to you with whatever it is that's going to move the lever for you to accomplish your dream, at least it's somebody who had the option to say yes. Because there's a lot of people that get mired in back and forth with somebody who's just not in a position because they're too junior or they're not in the right position or industry. What I like to tell people is fall in love with fear. And when you feel that fear, really start to fall in love with it and throw yourself into it wholeheartedly because that's what's going to ultimately get you out of your comfort zone, which you talked about in the beginning, and then get you what you want. So whenever you feel a fear, that's when you should jump and just go for it. Obviously,

there's certain types of fear that you want to avoid, like running into a bear or something like that. But the fear of failure and rejection and those types of fear is when you should really go after it. Yeah. There's a chapter called Vulnerability is Vital. That's what I was going to talk to you about next. Yeah. Let's talk about that because in this chapter, you start talking about really you didn't want to ask anyone for money. You're building this nonprofit or this charity or this for-purpose, and it's all about fundraising, but you were like your pride and your ego. You didn't want to ask anyone, so talk about that. Yeah, I mean, it was three and a half years into the organization.

At that point, we're raising seven figures a year. So we're a multi-million dollar operation, and I had yet to ask a single person outright for a direct donation. Not one person. The biggest ask I had made was of this CEO of the digital agency to do our website. But I never asked anyone like, hey, can you give us $10,000? And the key when you really study the science of fundraising is to ask for a specific number, and at least you anchor it and let the person come in at that number or above or below. And it's something that a lot of people, myself included, are extremely uncomfortable with, bringing money into that social dynamic.

And the truth is, you know, I had a lot of incredible friends who were very successful entrepreneurs or, you know, successful career-wise in one way or another and certainly had huge capacity and loved, you know, the organization, you know, told me all the time how proud they were to be associated with Pencil of Promise. And they'd never really given us anything more than like 30 or 40 bucks maybe. And so I knew that I was leaving so much money out on the table. And then at the same time, we had developed enough of a staff that I was now responsible for ensuring the well-being of my staff and their families. And when you have a board of directors at a high-growth nonprofit, they tend to be very impressive people who have kind of taken a leap of faith in you as the kind of leader or entrepreneur. And the one thing you don't want to show is weakness. You know, you don't want to kind of say, hey, I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm trying to figure it out or I actually suck at this one thing that's really important, which was the case for me. And I made a conscious decision that in the best interest of the organization, I really needed to express my absolute vulnerability, that I needed to be honest with the fact that I was failing at one of the most important responsibilities of a CEO of an organization in the charitable space. And I said, look, I'm really bad at this fundraising part. I'm not comfortable. I'm scared of asking people for money. And I need help. And we found a really, really fantastic course that not-for-profit or kind of, as I call, for-purpose organization, their leaders can go through to really teach them how to fundraise effectively. And a lot of it is the psychological component.

And what I realized was a couple of things. One of which was that part of my fear of asking people was that I put myself at the center of the equation and that I felt like I was asking for me, for money. And the reality was, I actually wasn't asking for myself. I was asking for the kids that we build schools for. And when I removed myself from the center of the equation, I actually thought for the kids that we build schools for. And when I removed myself from the center of the equation, I actually thought about the beneficiaries of our work, who really the money goes towards. It completely changed my approach. And instead of feeling a weight, a responsibility, I actually felt honored. Like, you know, I'm the one person who's met these kids

that can go out into the world and evangelize on behalf of their story. And what an honor for me to be able to ask for, you know, great people to support other, you know, great children. And so that was a big shift for me. And then the other one was just, you know, the experience. I had to kind of jump in the deep end and start asking people. And, you know, one guy who's on our board recently said to me about something else that I was And, you know, uh, one guy who's on our board recently said to me about something else that I was really weak at and I wanted to learn to get better at. He was like, Adam, if you want to learn, um, how to deliver like a great crossover move in basketball, do you watch the videos on YouTube or do you go out and play at the Duke basketball camp?

And the truth is you play at the Duke basketball camp. And the truth is you play at the Duke basketball camp. You don't just watch a video of it. And I needed to put that into practice. I needed to face my biggest fears. I needed to be open about where I was vulnerable. And, you know, as you said, like lean into those fears. And only through, you know, the first time hearing a soft yes, the second time hearing no, then hearing yes and no. And, you know, at this point every day, the second time hearing no, then hearing yes and no. And, you know, at this point every day, you know, I hear a yes or a no, but it's become far less of a fear and much more of not only, you know, somewhat of a strength, but something that I don't worry about doing as much anymore. I actually feel honored to do it now. Yeah. Cause it's not, it's not about you. It's about the cause and the kids. Right. I mean, if someone says no to me, it doesn't change my life,

but it changes the lives of the children that were you know potentially could have built a school in and when i remember that i don't feel one you know as much um that i'm at the center of this equation and it's a really hard thing because you know especially for entrepreneurs in a lot of ways you feel like your company is an extension of you personally but um if you're working in anything kind of cause-based, and I think whether you're non-profit or for-profit, there's a way for you to be a for-profit, for-purpose organization that you're serving.

I think your work in particular, Louis, you help a tremendous amount of people, but you're not registered as a 501c3 non-profit organization. But if you think about, all right, if you wanted to expand your business, and if you were looking to raise money around that, if you think about, all right, if you wanted to expand your business, and if you were looking to raise money around that, you know, if you think about, all right, this isn't just about expanding my business, it's enabling me to help more people find, you know, their passion and build their ideas into great businesses, you're actually serving a lot of good for a lot of people. And when you go into that fundraising mode, which, as I said,

I'm kind of patient zero here. I'm guilty person number one of being scared of. When you take yourself out of the center of the equation and you think about the beneficiaries of that work, it becomes a lot easier.

Yeah, and I think when you're an entrepreneur or raising money or selling your product or your service or anything, if you take that into consideration when you're asking for the sale or for the investment, that if you have an actual vision or a message or a purpose for what it is you're selling, the technology, whatever it may be, and it's greater than yourself,

then it kind of takes the pressure off you for asking for money because it's in a bigger purpose, bigger vision. Yeah. I mean, my recent obsession is this idea of helping people move from success to significance. And I think a lot of people first crave success. But when they reach success, then they transition and they seek significance. And this is just what I've seen from everything, from a lot of our highest network donors. The reason that they participate in an organization like Pencils of Promise is because they want to transition success into significance.

And that doesn't happen unless you face your fears. Gosh, some good nuggets, man. There's 30 mantras. And we've gone over like five or ten of these. There's 30 mantras, and we've gone over like five or ten of these. But each one, again, in the book, when you guys pick it up, it's powerful, powerful lessons, great stories, and great steps on how to really take it and own it for yourself. So everyone, make sure to go out and get The Promise of a Pencil, How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change by Adam Braun. And this will be released, I think,

the week that it comes out. So make sure you go check it out on Amazon. And I believe it's going to be in Barnes & Noble and everywhere else online that you can get it. The best place to find you is adambraun.com. Is that correct? Yeah. And pencilsofpromise.org

is the best place to find all about the organization and more about Adam's story and what they're up to. Again, 200 schools in less than five years is pretty inspiring in my mind when it just came from an idea that Adam had just over five years ago.

So pretty cool what one person can create with their ideas and transforming the world and the lives of a lot of young kids. And for me, this organization holds a big place in my heart because growing up, I was really challenged learning in school. And when I went to a private boarding school in eighth grade, they went to put me through all these different tests of seeing where I, where I, where I stood in the class. And they realized that I couldn't read. I had the reading level of about a second grader.

And it was a challenge for me to always read and specifically in public during class when, when teachers would call out me, I would be terrified and I would be sweating and I would read and I couldn't read the simplest of words. And so that experience of getting made fun of a lot, reading and really struggling in the school for me was a challenge. And it's one of the main reasons why I really believe in what Adam's up to is giving kids who don't have opportunities a better opportunity to really play on a level playing field in education. So I acknowledge you for what you've created, for the huge heart that you have, for your love and your passion for this vision. And I'm extremely excited to

continue supporting this. There's actually going to be, if you guys go to the show notes over at lewishouse.com, you'll see in the notes somewhere on the page that I'm fundraising for my next school, which is for my birthday, March 16th. So feel free to leave a donation there if you're inspired by this. Also, pick up the book. Again, The Promise of a Pencil. And to wrap up with the final question, my man, what is your definition of greatness? Such a good question. My definition of greatness would be living a life full of purpose, love, and dignity. I love it.

Thanks, my man. Hey, thank you. Thank you. Truly. It's been an honor and an inspiration. Yeah, man. I appreciate it. And make sure to chat with Adam.

You're on Twitter. You're at Adam Braun or it's Adam Braun? Yeah, just Adam Braun on Twitter. Okay. At Adam Braun on Twitter. Make sure to share this out with your friends and let Adam know if you have any questions. He'll chat back with you probably on Twitter there. For sure.

Thanks again, man, and I appreciate you. Appreciate you as well. Thanks so much, man. And I appreciate you. Appreciate you as well. Thanks so much, Liz. And there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Again, Adam is such an amazing human being and what a great storyteller. Make sure you go pick up the book, The Promise of a Pencil, How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change by Adam Braun.

And if you go over to the show notes over at lewishouse.com forward slash promise, you will get all the show notes, the links to find the book and the websites to find my campaign that I'm building with Pencils of Promise. If you'd like to donate, I'm building my third school right now. So you can go ahead and make a donation there if you'd like. And all the other goodies that you need to find out about Adam, again, it's incredible organization, incredible story. I urge you to pick up the book, really cool, extremely powerful and inspiring, and definitely well worth it. So again, go head over to lewishouse.com forward slash promise. I hope this episode inspires you guys to go out there and do

something extraordinary. It doesn't matter where you've come, where you're headed, what's happened to you, the success you've had, the failures you've had. Nelson Mandela said it best when he said, there is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. So I urge you to go out there and create the life you're capable of living. Go out there and do something great. See you. you