A Well-Fed Mind: Seven reasons to pursue continuous education

I clearly remember the phone call from my CEO, Martijn van Tilborgh, sometime in the fall of 2015.

“You should launch a leadership institute, Sam!” he said.

Even though his enthusiasm intrigued me, I personally wasn’t convinced that I should go through the trouble of developing a comprehensive leadership program like the one he was trying to describe to me. I reluctantly agreed to meet him for a two-hour conversation at the Atlanta Chop House, my go-to restaurant at the Atlanta airport, where I frequently meet leaders who fly in and out the same day for a consultation.

After Martijn presented to me the full plan of what this institute could look like, I had to admit that it sounded promising. The truth was that I was battling fatigue from being on the road for 250-plus days of the year. The idea of having a 12-month comprehensive leadership program that was delivered 100 percent online would allow me to multiply myself and impact leaders globally without the need for travel. At the end of our meeting, I decided to go out on a limb and take a risk on this ambitious idea.

Just months later we launched our first version of the Sam Chand Leadership Institute, a comprehensive 12-month leadership development program that lets you earn a certificate in leadership. Little did I know how explosive the growth would be. The feedback from leaders from around the world has been humbling (to say the least) ever since.

Five years later we’ve now launched our third improved edition of the institute with thousands of alumni and leaders who are currently enrolled.

When COVID hit in early 2020 and the world shut down, it became apparent to me that the Sam Chand Leadership Institute was the perfect program “for such a time as this.” It was as if the Lord had prompted us to create something that would be 100 percent “COVID-proof.” The Sam Chand Leadership Institute was something that could continue to impact leaders despite the rest of the world shutting down. Without knowing, we had created an incredible resource that could empower leaders even during this time of crisis.

Another quick call with Martijn resulted in an initiative that we could have never anticipated. We decided that it was the perfect time to give back. We launched a campaign that would allow any leader to enroll in the institute and pay whatever they wanted to pay, with no strings attached and no questions asked.

That’s right. We decided to make this program accessible to any leader from any country, regardless of budgetary limitations. We initially made $100,000 in financial aid available to our global community of leaders. The response was overwhelming. Even though leaders could pay whatever they wanted, many stepped up and paid full tuition. This allowed us to stretch the financial aid fund to reach more leaders.

However, it wasn’t long until the $100,000 in financial aid ran out, and we were faced with another decision. We could end the offer, or we could continue to offer leaders financial aid the way we had, with the risk of it not being financially sustainable. We decided to risk the latter.

To date, we’ve given away four million dollars in financial aid! And as long as the world remains unstable, we’ve decided to continue to do this.

Now, why should you consider enrolling in the Sam Chand Leadership Institute?

Well, learning is essential to our existence. Just like food nourishes our bodies, information and continued learning nourishes our minds. No one in their right mind would eat a meal and say to themselves, Well, that was satisfying. No need to ever eat again. Yet, many leaders make the mistake of thinking the degree they earned 20 years ago is a sufficient education to fuel their entire career.

Lifelong learning is an indispensable tool for every career and organization. Today, continuous learning forms a necessary part in acquiring critical thinking skills and discovering new ways of relating to people from different cultures. To live a life without continuous learning is unthinkable.

“The only thing that is constant is change,” Heraclitus famously said. Change in your career. Change in your personal life. Change in your community and organizations. One of the most effective ways of dealing with change is lifelong learning, and the Sam Chand Leadership Institute will help you do just that.

WHAT IS CONTINUOUS LEARNING?

Continuous learning is your self-motivated persistence in acquiring knowledge and competencies in order to expand your skillset and exploit future opportunities. It forms part of your personal and professional development in an effort to avoid stagnation and reach your full potential.

Knowledge is at everyone’s fingertips. Those not making use of this opportunity will remain where they are, their capabilities diminishing in importance.

Amit Nagpal, who calls himself a wholistic leadership enabler, wrote an article on LinkedIn that describes seven benefits that lifelong learning brings. These seven benefits of lifelong learning should be reason enough to never stop learning.

1. Remain relevant. Don’t be left behind. Ensure you remain relevant to your sector by keeping up to date with trends and adapting your skillset. To function effectively in this rapidly changing world of technology, you need to learn new things to remain valuable.
2. Prepare for the unexpected. Lifelong learning will help you adapt to unexpected changes—for example, losing your job and having to depend on new skills to find work. By continuing to learn, you’ll more easily step out of your comfort zone and take on new job opportunities.
3. Boost your profile. When you’re always learning, you’ll keep improving, grow in your career and start to receive recommendations from colleagues and managers. The chances are that you’ll switch jobs multiple times throughout your life, and you need to learn new skills to adapt accordingly.
4. Competence leads to confidence. Learning new things gives us a feeling of accomplishment which, in turn, boosts our confidence in our own capabilities; you’ll also feel more ready to take on challenges and explore new business ventures.
5. Spark new ideas. Acquiring new skills will unveil new opportunities and help you find innovative solutions to problems. This could earn you more money.
6. Change your perspective. Continuous learning opens your mind and changes your attitude by building on what you already know. The more you learn, the better you’ll get at seeing more sides of the same situation—helping you understand more deeply.
7. Pay it forward. Continuous learning isn’t just about you. Lifelong learning helps develop your leadership skills, which then translates into fostering lifelong learning in other individuals, by encouraging them to pursue further education.

As you can see, lifelong learning is important on many levels, and there is no better time to let the Sam Chand Leadership Institute play a part of that learning process.

The Sam Chand Leadership Institute offers leaders the opportunity to grow and succeed like never before. The program is online and flexible, perfect for leaders who are busy leading. You'll enter an exclusive environment of like-minded leaders who are serious about taking their influence and organizations to a whole new level.

The best thing? You can enroll now and pay whatever you can!

No questions asked!

No strings attached!

Will you join me?

This article was extracted from Issue 4 (Winter 2021) of the AVAIL Journal. Claim your free annual subscription here.

This article was written by Sam Chand

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Sam Chand is the author of numerous books, including his most recent title, Harnessing the Power of Tension. Dr. Chand is the founder of Dream Releaser Enterprises and the publisher of AVAIL.