97: Adam Braun on Adding Purpose to Your Life By Giving Back

What this episode covers

We are honored to have Adam Braun, founder of the award-winning non-profit organization Pencils of Promise, as our opening speaker for this Life on Fire Virtual Summit! You can get free access to all of the Summit speaker sessions at LifeOnFireVirtualSummit.com! And, as a special bonus, if you would like to make a small donation to Pencils of Promise we’re going to give you over $6,000 worth of marketing and mindset training courses for just $97! Grab all the details and make your $97 donation at BusinessOnFireBundle.com, and the proceeds from your donation are going to help build a school for needy children in Guatemala. Adam started off on what he thought was the path to happiness through pursuing wealth. By 19 he was interning on Wall Street and looking to make it big. While following what he thought was his career path, his 1,000 person semester at sea cruise ship was severely damaged and for a period of a few hours it appeared that certain death was the only likely outcome. Having come so close to dying at such a young age, Adam suddenly gained a new sense of priority. While backpacking through the countries he was able to visit as part of his time at sea, Adam would ask one child in each country what they want most in the world. And, one child’s answer from India would forever change his life… “A pencil”, the boy said. That became the moment that inspired Adam to want to provide quality education for every child in the world. Adam’s $25 was the first “donation” Pencils of Promise received when he started it, followed shortly by 400 of his friends and their friends donating $20 each to attend a Halloween party. He had raised $8,000 from that one event and never looked back… Adam notes, “Your sense of personal discovery begins where your comfort zone ends.” He faced challenge after challenge and “no” after “no” when first getting started, but it never stopped him. Not because he had passion, but because he had PURPOSE. That was his never-ending source of motivation, his purpose. Through his hard work and the efforts of his team, and the generous donors who have contributed over the years, they have built over 250 schools, brought education to over 30,000 children, and they now break ground on a new school every 90 hours. Without the right mindset, Adam would have never been able to grow his organization to a staff of 80 and accomplish all of those incredible numbers. A big part of that is realizing that as the owner or the founder of the organization you can’t do it all, you can’t maintain the attitude that nobody can do all of the tasks in your business better than you do. Therefore, he knew he had to build an organization and a culture that would help him fulfill his original mission. Among many wonderful initiatives Adam maintains throughout his organization, one of the most impressive is that they cover all of their overhead costs through private donations. Therefore, 100% every dollar donated by the public goes to help build schools, which is almost unheard-of in the non-profit world. That fact, along with Adam’s story and takeaways, are simply remarkable. Again, Adam, we are honored to have you as the first speaker to start the Life on Fire Virtual Summit! And, for a small donation of just $97 at BusinessOnFireBundle.com you can help us on our mission to build a school through Pencils of Promise and in return we’re going to give you over $6,000 worth of top-knotch training materials and courses on marketing and personal development! Make your donation today!

Distinct summary based on available episode metadata or transcript content.