@ScottDuffy - the man, the legend 😎 thanks Scott "Ask him what gave him the idea to go extremely hard on video quality so many years ago? And how are his brothers doing?" - I made a conscious decision early on that if I don't give it my all, I will end up slapping myself in the face later on. I had a feeling that Udemy could replace a full-time income while creating a positive impact, but I also knew that, just like in any area of life, if you want to make something happen, you cannot avoid a ridiculous work ethic. So... I decided to get obsessed. It seemed like the best way to stand out was to focus on the video quality. I couldn't afford a proper video crew, so I did the second best thing - I structured a % deal. Worst case, we would all lose a bit of time (while getting invaluable experience). Best case - we would all benefit as a team. Getting a % of the profit incentivized them to give it their all. As for filming in nature, here's a little bit of background. Ever since I remember, I loved traveling. Even when I was broke at university, I still found a way to travel (cheap flights, hitchhiking, and sleeping on beaches and in parks). Later, at Goldman Sachs, when people told me that I wouldn't have the time to travel, I still did it. I would leave the office on Friday evening, go straight to the airport, get a cheap flight to some European destination and come back on Sunday night to go back to the office. Since travel had always been such a big part of my life, I figured that I might as well take my students on my journeys. I had an instinctive feeling that it would make the content more compelling as it would trigger a lot of curiosity. At the same time, filming in nature is extremely inspiring, and you often find yourself getting into long flow states (which makes your content better). Also, people often assume that it has to be prohibitively expensive, but this challenge can be hacked. How? By getting a team of people who are also passionate about traveling and would do it anyway, plus using travel hacks to do everything on a budget. As for my brother and dad - they are doing great, thanks for asking Scott! My father (Dr Roy Naraine) has 130k students now, and I'm actually visiting them now in Poland, trying to brainwash them to make some extra content 😉
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