Why I Skipped Sunday Football
Thoughts on my new role as Course Manager at Forte Labs
A lot changed for me in 2019. Specifically, my job. Twice.
In May, I left Oracle to sell software for Darktrace, a growing AI cybersecurity company. In December I resigned from Darktrace. There were no hard feelings -- I liked the people and the product. I left to serve as the first full-time employee at Forte Labs, an online school working to reinvent education.
The backstory:
In 2019 I decided to start writing. I began with a UCLA extension class, which went well enough. In April I enrolled in the first-ever cohort of Write of Passage, an online class created by a writer and podcaster named David Perell. David and I had grabbed dinner when he visited LA in December 2018, which is where I first heard about his idea to teach people online writing.
When I joined the first class (via Zoom video conference) on May 1st, I found myself in an enthusiastic virtual “classroom” with seventy-five students from around the world. People hailed from London, Dubai, India, Peru, Nigeria, Hungary...the list goes on. I quickly realized this was a special group, joined together in a virtual course unlike any of its kind. I felt like a pioneer in a digital covered wagon, racing across the frontier of online education.
The class consisted of eleven 90-minute live video calls over five weeks, during which I created a website and wrote two articles. Towards the end of the class I lost steam. I fell behind on my assignments and even skipped two sessions. Around the same time I left Oracle and found myself with some time off. I spent two weeks traveling through Dubai and Italy with a few close friends. The trips were unforgettable, but in reflective moments I would kick myself for squandering my opportunity with Write of Passage.
As a “premium” member, I later learned I had lifetime access to future rounds of the course. Cohort Two started in late August. I took this second attempt more seriously, staying late after work to attend class each Monday and Wednesday. I completed all the assignments and poured hours into my writing. I finished with several pieces I was proud of, some new friends, and newfound confidence that I could reliably finish something I started.
Before our last session I offered David a few suggestions for how to improve the course. He liked the ideas, and asked me to help him make changes for the upcoming cohort.
For the final three months of the year I worked hard to sell cybersecurity software. Each week I traveled throughout the southwestern US, attending conferences, speaking at events, and meeting with customers. Then, when the weekend arrived, I shifted my focus. I’m a lifelong football fan, but I hardly watched an NFL snap all fall. I was quiet during water cooler fantasy football talk at work, because for the first time since 2005, I didn’t have a team. I dedicated every minute of my weekends this fall to Write of Passage.
For five straight Saturdays and Sundays, I met virtually with past students, revamped the curriculum, built an onboarding process, and overhauled the course forum. Write of Passage Cohort 3 launched in November with 178 students from 28 countries. Just as before, I was able to meet people from around the globe, holding more than 70 intro calls for new students. I also attended most classes as course manager, ran our weekend feedback calls, and helped prepare lesson plans each week.
The long weekends and lack of football paid off. Toward the end of the year, I received a call from Tiago Forte, the founder of Forte Labs (the platform that hosts Write of Passage -- Tiago helped create Write of Passage and runs the flagship Forte Labs course, Building a Second Brain). He offered me a full-time position as Course Manager for all Forte Labs classes. I resigned from my job on December 16th and flew to Mexico City the next morning for a week-long planning session with Tiago and David. On January 1st, my tenure as Course Manager officially began.
We have a long list of projects to implement before the next Write of Passage cohort starts on February 19th. I’m responsible for improving the Student Experience and Operations for our courses, which will allow Tiago and David to focus on selling and marketing. Tiago is currently based in Mexico City and David lives in New York, so I’ll be working remotely from LA. I’m beyond excited to see what this year will bring.
Starting on this new chapter was a leap of faith. Familiar cadences of office life -- morning chitchat, lunch with coworkers -- have been replaced by Zoom calls and coffee shops. The distinction between work and life has merged, so that sometimes it feels like my work is my life. With the freedom of remote work comes the feeling that your work is never really done -- when your home is your office, there’s always another task to complete. But the long hours are worth it. Early in the morning or late at night, sometimes I reflect and feel grateful. I feel the satisfaction of helping, in my own small way, to shape the future of online education.
Note: This article is adapted from my weekly newsletter, Future Glance, where I share writing and ideas about how technology is transforming media, education, and governance. Plus, cool stuff I find on Twitter. Click here to subscribe.
The Forte Labs team on our final night in Mexico City.