From failure to success
It took me over 2.5 years to accept this
Before we begin
I find that many people struggle to reach fluency because they don’t know how to learn languages. Today, I recorded a video where I show you in real-time what I do at home to study. Skip ahead to the final 3 to 4 minutes of the video. I am teaching Gujarati for the first 12 to 13 minutes, so that won’t be relevant to most of you.
And now let’s dive into today’s blog post.
Rewind to the summer of 2023…
I had just left Taipei and was settling back into Calgary. It was a period of profound personal growth, in particular because I learned to:
Be a better listener
Speak my mind
These two changes transformed all relationships in ways that I don’t think I’d ever be able to find the words to explain.
More changes in the fall
A number of realizations hit me after reading a book called 100M Offers by Alex Hormozi. Chief among them was just how bad I was at my job. I had so much room to improve and redefined in my mind what it meant to “be excellent” at something. Words cannot describe how deeply that realization shook me to my core.
I also, around this time, decided that:
I wanted to make more money in my business
I wanted to do much better work for my students
As a result, I began creating my Guaranteed Fluency Program.
An identity clash
My personal development was on steroids from 2023 onward. I was shedding my old self so fast that I could feel “Old Azren” and “New Azren” clashing with each other. New Azren would be acting in a certain way and then Old Azren would poke his head up to self-sabotage.
Frankly, it has only been about 2 weeks since I’ve noticed Old Azren not getting in the way as much. The identity shift, while ongoing, took about 2.5 years to solidify.
An example
One of the prime examples of the identity clash was with making more money. I don’t have fixed rates (which I’ve discussed on this blog), but I now tend to charge above-market rates. It took me a long time to get comfortable with the idea of charging more than other tutors. I have plenty of embarrassing stories to tell of how I self-sabotaged as the new identity settled in. Perhaps another day I will tell them.
“No discount policy”
I was also frustrated beyond belief that I couldn’t articulate to myself when I offered discounts. See, New Azren never discounts. Ever. He either works for free or charges full price. 0 or 100. And he has a philosophy of why that is.
But Old Azren convinced New Azren to make 1 exception…but this was all done through a meditative process. I couldn’t actually explain what the 1 exception was until recently after observing and reflecting upon my recent behaviour.
Generally speaking, my rates currently look something like this:
Intensive packages: start at $20,000 per year
Regular packages: start at $4,000 per year
Monthly packages: start at $400 per month
Language coaching: $250 per half-hour
But some new students pay lower rates. They all meet these criteria:
They are consistent
They study diligently
They have a tight budget
They’re highly motivated learners
They have an excellent personality match with the tutor
The tutor and student derive deep meaning from working together
From failure to success
My business has grown since 2023, but it has been a painful process. So many mistakes, each with real consequences. But I feel much stronger. I’m not sure if the storm has subsided, but I’m navigating it better.
And that’s the real success, at least in my eyes.
Condensed learning
My first 5-6 years of being an adult was a period of condensed learning. 60-80 hours a week of constant novel challenges for almost 6 years straight will do that to you. That feels like a lifetime ago; I am now 33 years old.
This season of my life feels a little similar, though less intense. As I think on it now, a part of me wants crank up my personal development intensity to mirror early adulthood. It was a challenging, yet precious season.
Getting old
I think the aging process starts when learning stops. Or, a more nuanced view, would be we age to the degree to which we stop learning. At the age of 18, the intensity of learning was cranked up to 120%. Every second of every day was imbibed intense.
I don’t want to go back to burning the candle at both ends, but I definitely am leaving gas in the tank now. I’d like that to change.
More updates to come, as usual, in future blog posts. Stay tuned!
Thanks for reading!
Azren
Calgary Language Nerds owner
https://azrenthelanguagenerd.com