Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Albie Mitchell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Albie, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic has been shaped by different experiences. My family and upbringing had a big impact. Both my parents worked hard and modeled that for me. They also set clear expectations about making good grades in school and doing homework each day until all assignments were done.
As a child I struggled in school, especially with reading due to a learning disability. I was failing the second grade and was transferred to a new school with a special education class mid-year where I would get more individual support from teachers. Fortunately I had support from my parents and others who wanted to see me succeed. Mrs. Harris was the teacher in my new class who helped me learn to read and write and really changed the direction of my whole life. After working with Mrs. Harris for a year and a half I returned to a larger class and met with special ed teachers on a more limited basis. I noticed that I needed more time to do everything than my classmates. This included reading, writing, processing instructions. But I also knew that if I wanted to grow and learn I had to do the work and the only way to keep up with my friends was too work harder than them.
The other experience was playing sports. When I was in third grade I was playing AA little league and I had a new coach, Leo. Before Leo we practiced once a week and we lost almost every game. With Leo we practiced every day after school. The work we did in practice showed when we played in games.
With family, school and sports I saw the direct relationship between effort and success. Did I get straight A’s and win every game? No. But the harder I worked the better I would perform and the easier things got.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I work with eleven and twelfth graders teaching them skills related to entrepreneurship and design. It is exciting to be able to share my skills and experience to help students take their ideas and passions and bring them to life through creating a business or a product. Seeing a student take ownership over not only their project, but their education and life is really rewarding.
Outside of school I have a design business that produces projects that range from architecture, custom furniture to art fabrication. This is a creative outlet for me, but also a way for me to authentically live what I teach.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Curiosity, perseverance and optimism. Curiosity drives us to understand, and question, the world and our experience of it. I am talking about a willingness to deconstruct things to understand at a deeper level. Perseverance is required to do anything hard or worth undertaking. Starting over or redoing something is hard. The projects I am most proud of all reached a point where I really wanted to give up but I kept going anyway. And optimism helps us believe what we are doing is worth while, or at least fool ourselves into thinking the challenges will not be as great as they often are.
How can folks who want to work with you connect?
I am always looking for business partners to share their wisdom and experience with my students. I launched a mentorship program last year where each senior gets paired with a mentor and they meet once a month. Ideal candidates have business, marketing, or engineering experience, especially if they have started or managed a business or non-profit. Anyone interested.in getting involved can contact me at [email protected].
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thecollab.us
- Instagram: @albiemitchell
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albert-albie-mitchell-7bb0b6b/
- Youtube: @MitchellManor
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