What if an institution measured your progress by how much it could give you?

The Question

That Started a Movement

Captain's Log #001 — Part 2 of 5

📖 5 minute read

Cambridge, Massachusetts. 2018.

In 2018, four years after my brother took his own life, I found myself in a deep meditative brainstorm with my friend and business partner Steve. We were sitting in a poorly furnished office we could barely afford in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The kind of office where the radiator clanks like a man trying to escape a trunk, and you learn to talk over it.

In that session, I asked a question.

What if people from all walks of life had access to an institution — a real one, with weight and permanence — that gave them real-world knowledge and skills? One that rewarded them with ranking, promotions, and a measurably better quality of life. Similar, in a way, to the spiritual structure we find within a religious institution — the kind that gives its worshippers increasing rewards, responsibilities, and titles based on their level of dedication to the institution's cause.

But this institution would be fundamentally different.

The Difference

It wouldn't measure progress by how much it could take from you in the form of devotion and worship. It would measure your progress by how much it could give you.

And give it shall.

Accountability. Lessons. Tools. A network leading to measurable abundance, prosperity, financial well-being, and — most importantly — a greater knowledge of oneself and one's major purpose in life. A place where families could convene on weekends. Study together. Grow as a family unit.

What if we called it an institution — a temple of financial prosperity. A church of education. Where the end goal is to live better for yourself… so you can be good to others. So you can uplift them.

That was the end of that conversation. Steve and I finished our coffee, locked the door to that miserable little office, and went home.

It would take four more years — and a vision on a frozen mountain — for the answer to arrive.

That's what I'll share with you next.

→ Read the full manifesto at coveofedu.org/log/001

With love, Izzy