Why I built This: Livada’s Founding Story
Hello,
At the heart of our societal problems lies an antiquated education system that hasn’t kept up with the real world around it.
While the world is in constant flux, education is still as rigid as ever.
Rather than giving the space for children to follow their curiosity to fascinating places, and take whole-hearted action towards their dreams, the system takes away those abilities year after year as it tries to “design” them to fit a corporate job description — which ironically has also been designed for them by someone else.
The latter approach would not be a problem if the economy was a static system in which careers were still linear, or if technology isn’t pulling the future forward at exponential speed, if corporate success was not driven by innovation and creativity, or if it wasn’t necessary to reinvent oneself a few times across one career.
In the world schools were introduced, one-size-fits-all education would work because the goal of education wasn’t raising innovators, critical thinkers, polymaths, and creatives who could explore new possibilities and rid the world of its complex problems.
The goal was to transmit knowledge as if they have empty brains to be filled with facts by the time they’re 22, not leaving any space for imagination and experimentation .
We’re living in a completely different world now — one with a frontier economy that relies on innovation more than imitation. Our world is asking for more Einsteins, Elons and Ed Sheerans.
Einsteins, Elons and Ed Sheerans?
Albert Einstein developed his interest in maths and theoretical physics before he was taught any of them in school. He wrote that he felt “alienated” in school and that it almost killed his passions. Known for his deep inquisitive mind, he skipped most university classes to study independently. By the time he was 26, he would publish 4 papers that changed the face of science history forever and continued to ask questions that thousands of scientists are still trying to uncover today.
Elon Musk, who’s now building re-usable rockets after learning about rocket science by himself, started computer programming when he was 10 and sold his first game for $500 at 12. Elon has been so critical of conventional schooling that he built his own school for his children and those of Space X employees. It has since been spun off as Synthesis, a private for-profit online school with weekly immersive simulations, in which any child “approach real-life problems and prepare them to navigate the complexity and chaos that comes with life.”
Ed Sheeran, the Irish singer who has a place in everyone’s heart because of his musical talent, actually began singing in the Church choir when he was just 4 years old. He started recording and selling CDs at 12, and by the time he was 18 had launched his first album and moved to London. Shortly after he began studying at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in Surrey —where he received 6 Fail grades in a row — he left without permission in the same year to support hip-hop artist “Just Jack” and never looked back.
So what’s changing?
First, the uncertainty of markets and technological impact, in addition to the less-discussed waves of automation that accompany it, are forces that cannot be stopped. The market will need more players who are “on the edge” — who bring their leadership skills, emotional intelligence, and creative solutions to the table. This will distinguish them from the machine algorithms that are called “smart” but that can only analyze past data.
This means children to grow up with the confidence to develop their unique perspectives, the capacity to continuously integrate new knowledge into wisdom, the sense of empowered agency in tackling the unknown, and real responsibility for social impact issues that matter to them.
Second, there lie growing pockets of disruption and change inside the seemingly struggling education scene, and in the midst of the COVID pandemic we’re witnessing a rebirth of the learning and development field, based on new research of how people acquire knowledge. Adoption of Edtech is on the rise, and more investment is going into it than what whole governments have been spending on supporting the school system.
The emergence of personalized education, online tutoring, play-learning, project-based learning, mixed reality content, tools for creativity and collaboration — you name all the new tech-enabled learning environments that are outside the schooling system — will eventually converge with schooling into a holistic 21st-century education that’s designed to nurture the unique potential of every child.
Third, culture itself is changing. The quest of Millennials and Gen Z parents towards finding purpose will reflect heavily on their kids, now called generation Alpha, who are growing up in this flux and already demanding they be given the tools to help out. Purpose itself is largely engrained inside the creative potential of the self and our playful experimentation with the world — and it’s what children naturally do in the early years.
While a modern day adult’s currencies today are money and jobs, a child’s currencies have always been creativity and play. The problem is that we’re forced into the former as we grow up, whereas the latter should remain the natural state all the way into adulthood, essentially doing things for no other reason than truly loving the activity. Because of this disequilibrium in the human condition, carving out a path towards a meaningful career is going to be the theme of the next big educational debates.
The three market tailwinds above (and yes, cultural shifts do drive markets) make me feel confident in betting that education will not look the same.
For me anyway, it was always bound to change!
School was never my thing. I actually dreaded every day I stepped foot in there. I didn’t really fit in, and I’m not talking about fitting in with other children, but with the school environment itself which felt more like a prison than a place to follow my passions.
To be able to lead a life of wisdom-seeking and purposeful exploration, I had to unlearn, plug off my schooling memories and relearn countless topics from scratch to get a good enough grasp on the world and move with agency and purpose.
My attention as a kid was always somewhere other than school — in video games where I learned to strategize and compete, in music where I learned to empathetize and find patterns, in science magazines where I learned to innovate and dream, and in many other places all at once.
If you know me at all, you’d see how those experiences shaped who I am today. My career trajectory can be traced to small moments or experiences that had a lasting impact — like that drawing competition where I got first prize and got motivated to continue drawing until I’m 18; or that children book called “Where The Future Began” which showed me possibilities of futuristic products; or that Beatles CD collection that my mom bought me and ignited my passion for alternative music.
In my later teenage years, the internet became my playground in learning about science, philosophy, psychology, technology, spirituality, and wellness — things I wasn’t even interested in at school.
Even in my MBA, I rarely spent time working on the tasks at hand. I was, most of the time, off learning from newsletters and podcasts on the internet. A comment that stuck with me since then was a colleague of mine saying “you are the most self-taught person in the program”.
This is not to say that schools or universities are useless, but to highlight the shortcomings of schools and colleges that can be complemented with alternative educational models.
I am indeed very proud of my formal education trajectory, because I was able to travel to attend programs in 4 different cities and learn more about the world than I ever could, from diverse and multinational colleagues.
I’ve also been lucky in that the schools I attended knew what they’re doing in regards to launching young adults into the frontier economy. I actually saw the difference between low-quality education in my early years and a high-quality one in later years, and they felt miles apart.
The change I personally hoped for is certainly upon us.
What does this mean for you and your family?
The good news from all this research and innovation is this: parents can now hack their child’s education and help their children chart a path to a future they deserve.
There has never been so much technology available for toddlers and children to extend their awareness of exciting issues and topics that speak to their soul. There has never been a better time for children to make a difference from their own screens.
It also has never been easier for children to build their own games, to express themselves online in unique ways, to find mentors and role models from far away places, and to showcase their creations for the whole internet to see.
The bad news is that for young, low-to-high income millennials, achieving these aspirations for their kids is becoming harder, more uncertain, and fleeting because of pervasive financial burdens and money worry.
Child costs have almost tripled in the last 30 years in places like the UK and the US, with 9 out of 10 new parents are surprised by how much they spend.
At the start of their parenting journey, they don’t have visibility into what raising a child really costs, and may not know what resources they should take advantage of to support their children’s future success.
My family and I have spent more than $400,000 between my education and hobbies.
I come from Lebanon, a third-world country in the Middle East, but I consider my education to be my passport to unlocking the world.
So I’ve been since asking myself if I can not only afford a child but also if I can actually give him or her the best life possible — especially after seeing my dad go into serious debt issues to provide for my own education and hobbies
What I found in my research is that I wasn’t alone in that thought; becoming financially stable is a major reason why, in modern culture, marriage happens at a later age — or never happens at all.
In major cities across UK, EU, and US, the sustainable values-driven lifestyle that young people like me dream of seemed unattainable to most of us, as child costs are rising faster than our income.
I also did a small survey last year with parents across Europe and the UK:
- 70% of millennial parents are very worried about future child spending.
- 81% have already faced difficulties in budgeting and managing it, with 25% of those taking on debt
- 91% said it’s important to spend on enriching child resources so they can flourish into talented and successful human beings, yet most of them admit they need better planning to do so
They had many more questions on their mind, especially when it comes to acquiring high-priority items such as educational experiences, enrichment resources and creative experiences they know would ensure healthy child development.
Most parents around the world aspire to provide their children with an abundant lifestyle in which they can flourish into talented and successful human beings.
They’re right to do so. Researchers are finding that 80% of education is done by parents in one way or another, and that there’s a direct correlation between family income — or circumstances — and the life outcomes of the child.
In fact, a 2017 US-based survey by TD Ameritrade shows that children’s education and family emergency funds are the top saving priorities for millennial parents, coming before retirement planning, home down payments and health expenses.
Given the disruption outlined above on the Edtech front, or in connected toys and STEM kits, and ultimately in the nature of work itself, I feel that education decisions are becoming much more complex. What’s more, spending behaviours in this soon-to-be $10 trillion industry are about to change in accordance with these trends.
Having a finance background with a very deep interest in learning and development, I thought of building a modern financial planning tool dedicated to children’s aspirations. Livada got brought to life over the last year with a small team of parents, education coaches, accelerators, advisors and technologists.
What would be the philosophy that drives the financial plan?
- It would be driven by the personality traits of the child, from which parents build a personalized pathway in and beyond conventional schooling in a mix-and-match fashion.
- It would show parents the costs of everything from essentials to all kinds of resources they should invest in, because what we really care about is understanding whether these experiences are within budget or any adjustments need to be made.
- It would be super long-term and holistic, because parents want to have the full view of their finances and those of their partners up until the child becomes independent.
- It’s surely not set in stone as the child grows up and discovers new aspirations, so it would follow a possibilities-based approach and adapt along the way.
I know that the quality of education I had may not be easily accessible to few others, but with the proliferation of low cost tech-enabled online programs, competency-based schools that only take tuition when you find a job, low monthly subscriptions for self-study apps— we may finally be able to get lower-cost yet higher-quality education to every child.
We know that 73% of US parents have college planning on their mind just because of the sheer cost of it, and trying to figure out ways to finance it. Yet our “new world” context tells us that the traditional way of shopping for education funding plans — where parents put a certain percentage aside up until the child is 18 — will simply not work going forward.
- Will tuitions keep rising at a similar rate, where for example the most competitive US schools reach $500,000+ in tuition fees by the 2030's?
- Can a millennial even put £70,000 or $100,000+ (the average UK and US tuition fees) aside if they’ve already got their own debt and their city living expenses are through the roof?
- Will colleges even exist in 10–15 years in their current form?
- Will the student debt bubble pop or will governments intervene?
- Will they become even more commoditized and “useless” in gaining a life advantage, as some are saying?
- Will they evolve into a sort of lifelong learning and accreditation models?
- Will they be overtaken by online communities and learning tools launched by disruptive tech companies?
When we break down the university experiences into its constituents (i.e. content, community, mentors, accreditation, development, project-based learning), it’s easy to see that those are things technology and cultural trends can impact and already is.
I don’t think anyone including universities themselves has the answer to the above questions today yet, but planning involves putting scenarios for what could happen based on the best research possible, and following along.
When we read more research concluding that early childhood education is the most impactful period on a child’s development, and more parents are understanding that enriching their child’s education from an early age is a way to tackle the same aspirations, that’s where we conclude that the education funding landscape is bound to shift alongside the education landscape.
How is Livada different?
Livada’s approach is unique across the financial planning space — mainly because we are putting “child development” before “finance”, i.e. using money as a resource to underwrite education and enrichment throughout the child’s lifetime, without waiting for university as the “big goal” at the end of the 18 years.
Our company is also unique because we are a purpose-driven brand with a vision to raise Generation Alpha to become creative, curious, resilient, and socially responsible — all the while being a curator of cutting-edge education research and recommended items to support parents in their financial decisions.
I believe a parent’s mind should constantly be balancing the wealth formula and making the right trade-offs for a well-rounded education. With financials in order, parents will be able to support their kids with the best resources money can buy.
I’m not a parent myself yet, but by working on Livada in the last 18 months, by being involved in Edtech and digital therapeutics startups, by reflecting on my own educational path, by building financial plans for companies, by delving deep over the years into modern economic issues, and by having discussions with hundreds of friends and colleagues who are facing this new world with awe and anxiety, I’ve learned so much about the ways we can empower young people to go after their aspirations.
What really matters, at the end of the day, is not what we parents and educators think should happen. It’s that we create environments in which young children learn to think for themselves and thrive in the exploration of their purpose, only nudged by non-forceful involvement from the people and brands in their lives.
We hope that with a tool like Livada by their side, our customers would make their greatest task would be to fully understand their child’s uniqueness and nurture it with the right mindset, and the right financial resources — never having to say “no” to their children’s passions because of money.
That’s the world I want to live in, and that’s why I built Livada.
