When John finished grade 12 with SelfDesign journey last June, the 18-year-old had already achieved considerable skill in computer programming. That he was able to do so, he says, is largely due to the encouragement he experienced as a SelfDesign learner to explore his passions and interests as integral elements of his learning.
“There’s so many opportunities that came out of that — like, just things I was able to do that you wouldn’t be able to do with normal public school,” John says.
One of those opportunities was being hired, when he was in grade nine, to work for one of Canada’s biggest power sports companies that sold customized equipment for extreme sports across North America, Europe and Asia. That role led to more opportunities and more experience within the company. He was then offered the role of lead website developer to revamp the company’s website and build a new system to facilitate payments. His work helped the company more than double its sales.
“It’s just been pretty cool,” the Salmon Arm–based (now Abbotsford) learner says. “Because not only through SelfDesign was I able to gain industry knowledge by just having the capacity to do schooling and doing work-related activities as well, they also combined in a lot of ways. A lot of the things I did within that company I was able to submit as personal projects and other learning artifacts.”
The work with the company also stretched John’s skills. It allowed him to learn more about his chosen industry. And it helped him build his self-confidence to strike out on his own as a programmer and web developer.
He launched his own company in early 2022 and quickly secured two organizations within the U.S., one being a not-for-profit that does work in Africa. He also developed and launched an accountability app to help people meet their objectives and goals, and he’s helping his mom by developing and supporting her business website.
That’s quite an achievement for somebody who only recently finished grade 12.
We talked with John about his SelfDesign experience. The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
SelfDesign (SD): Tell us a bit about yourself.
John: I was born in Germany, and we moved to Canada when I was five years old. We recently became Canadian citizens in early 2022.
I lived in Salmon Arm and recently moved to Abbotsford.
I have a sister, and I have a mom and a dad and a cat.
SD: How did you come to SelfDesign?
John: When I started school within public school, I started in kindergarten and worked my way up to grade seven, where I realized that the public school system wasn’t really a good fit for me. I wasn’t getting the best grades, I was behind with homework and behind my peers, as well, with the amount I was learning.
My mom and dad suggested SelfDesign. A person we knew was a learning consultant for SelfDesign, and she got us involved. And it was a great fit. I was with SelfDesign from grade seven all the way to grade 12, and it’s been a blast.
SD: Describe your transition to SelfDesign. It’s very different than public school, and it can take a while to adjust. How did that work for you?
John: It was definitely different because instead of going to school and having classes, you’re now in your room and you have a to-do list or something. There was a weekly schedule of things I needed to get done for the week, and then I just kind of did it. I separated the work between the five days of the weekdays.
And I had a learning consultant who did an excellent job of bringing me into SelfDesign and explaining how everything works. We actually had her come over to our house a couple of times back in grade seven to just explain how SelfDesign works. We had conversations on what to expect, and she toured us through the learning platform and how I would submit my work and was just that guide to make sure that I knew what I was supposed to do and that there were no hidden expectations.
So, yeah, the transition was pretty good. We got integrated very well and very fast, and it all made sense.
SD: What were your learning goals when you were with SelfDesign?
John: They were all pretty much work-oriented goals. One of them was to have my own client for my own business, and I achieved that.
Some other goals were personal development goals — getting better at communication and also growing friendships and relationships because relationships are important. Having friendships is important, and growing those friendships is important, and that is something I needed to work on when I started SelfDesign. I believe I’m getting better at it, which is awesome.
SD: Other than having the opportunity to take on paid work, how did SelfDesign help you with your goals?
John: Well, I knew that I wanted to do something with IT — in technology. I was able to learn a bunch of coding techniques on my own through a couple of courses and also through SelfDesign, but just mainly experimenting with a wide variety of programming languages, payment systems, emails — everything you can think of.
I did all that through SelfDesign. A lot of my learning projects in grades 10 to 12 were based on things I built through programming. The first programming project I submitted was the payment system I built for my mother. She needed something to capture payments for her business, so I built that for her. And another one — actually one of the last projects I submitted as a SelfDesign learner — is my app. I published an accountability app on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. It’s signed up a few hundred users and has a couple thousand downloads.
So I knew programming was pretty fun, and I really love doing it. And I think I’m pretty good at it, too.
Also, I think SelfDesign really helped me develop self-regulation, self-motivation, and time management. There are times when you just don’t want to do school — you’re just, like, having a blah day and you want to take a break. I believe the great thing that came out of that whole SelfDesign experience is that it made me more committed to do things — like, ‘Nope, I don’t care if I don’t want to do it, I’m going to do it anyway.’
SD: What part of SelfDesign did you like the most?
John: I really enjoyed the learning consultants and learning specialists. I really enjoyed the real-time meetings and personal connections we had with the learning specialists. All my educators were excellent.
And my learning consultant — in the last year, she was an amazing accountability partner for helping me stay on track and making sure I had goals in place so that I could finish the year off in a good way.
Meeting the other learners in the real-time meetings was also a blast. It was great meeting them and talking about the work they were doing within SelfDesign.
SD: Now that you’ve graduated, what are your goals?
John: My main goal is to keep growing my business. Another goal is to hire my first employee by the end of 2023. My final goal is, in 10 years or even beyond that, is to be the CEO and founder of a holding company that buys different technology companies within Canada and the United States. And the very big goal is to have 100,000 employees — to have a company the size of like Facebook or something — but that is a very long-term goal.
SD: What advice would you share with other learners who are starting with SelfDesign?
John: Work diligently in everything you do. If you don’t take your work seriously within SelfDesign, you won’t take your work seriously in other jobs, and people in higher positions will take notice of that and won’t give you the same opportunities as other employees. The way you present yourself out there is very important. It’s not all about learning — it is also about other people and doing the best work you can. It doesn’t need to be perfect — no one in the world is perfect, and no one should be a professional perfectionist — but, yeah, just do your best and do it diligently.
Also, have a life goal to work towards. I have a big, big goal. Because the future is insane, I don’t know if I’ll reach it or not, but the best thing I can do is give it my best shot. I’ve seen this in other people, where they have something they think they might like, but they then switch to another thing, and they’re just bouncing around with no real vision for the future. So, have a goal, and don’t bounce around different things. Do try a lot of things — there’s nothing wrong with that — but have a main goal in mind.
SD: What is your secret superpower?
John: Knowing that if there’s a skill I’m lacking, I can achieve and gain that skill. I believe anyone has that ability, yet not a lot of people realize it. A lot of people I think are, like, ‘Oh, I’m not talented at this,’ or they throw excuses on why they aren’t able to do something. But the only reason why they’re not able to do something is because they just haven’t learned how to do it yet.
So if you just realize the fact that you have the ability and if you are able to walk, stand, eat, breathe, think for yourself and talk — if you have all that, you have the ability to start learning, start reading, start watching courses or whatever, and gain that skill.
Learn more about paths to graduation at SelfDesign
Read about some of our other learners’ SelfDesign journeys
Find out more about the projects our grade 10 to 12 learners undertake as part of their learning
Read about other advice SelfDesign learners have shared with their peers
Find out why so many of our grade 10 to 12 learners do so well
