Someone Taught You to Walk.
Now There’s a Kid Reaching Up.

The Cobbler

There’s a man I once knew in Floripa — a cobbler, of all things — who repaired shoes for free every Sunday morning. Not out of charity. Not for the optics. He did it because he believed that a person who walks well, thinks well. And a person who thinks well eventually stands up for someone who can’t.

I asked him once why he didn’t charge. He looked at me as though I had asked why the sea was salty.

“Because,” he said, “I wasn’t the one who taught me to walk.”

That, in its entirety, is the premise of what we do.

We Are COE

We are COE. Not an acronym you frame on a wall. Not a brand. A covenant. A movement of showing up for others — genuinely, repeatedly, without being asked — until they are ready to show up for themselves. And then — and this is the part most people miss — until they can take others along with them.

You show up for your people through presence and accountability. Not the hollow, corporate kind where someone schedules a check-in and reads from a template. The real kind. The kind that costs you something. And when you do it enough, something remarkable happens — a network effect of accountability and success begins to ripple outward. One grain becomes a silo. One act of showing up becomes a movement.

There’s a principle I carry with me, and I want to be precise about this:

The best way to make your dreams come true is by taking others along with you for the ride.

Now — I’m not offering that as something to embroider on a throw pillow. It is the operational principle by which Covenant of Education functions. It is the engine, not the paint.

Atoms of Realization

We have reduced the moments of epiphany — those enormous, trembling realizations — to atoms. Atoms of recognition that we are more powerful than we allow ourselves to imagine. And then we prove it. Again. And again.

Take Elly. Before COE, she didn’t realize — her words, not mine — that she could direct a film. She produced a documentary in ten days. Learned DaVinci Resolve in a single week. Edited a ten-minute production rough cut in five days while simultaneously learning the platform. Then turned around and edited and published thirty YouTube videos in three weeks.

These aren’t abstractions. They are personal testimonies to what happens when a human being applies their mind and remembers — not learns, remembers — their limitless potential. Their Godliness.

Where Are You?

So I want you to do something before we go any further. I want you to choose where you are. Right now. Today.

The Question in Cambridge

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.

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.

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.

The Vision in Oregon

Fast-forward to the end of 2022. Four years later. And I find myself in Oregon. In the mountains. In the dead of winter. The kind of cold that doesn’t argue — it simply arrives and stays.

As I enter a meditative state, I see my brother.

He comes to me — not as memory, not as metaphor — in a vision. And he comes to relieve me of the tremendous burden I had been carrying for so many years since his passing. Through this vision, he helps me recover from the deep pain and hopelessness I had leaned into after losing him. A hopelessness I had befriended, the way you befriend a stray dog — not because you want it, but because it won’t leave.

Throughout this vision, I feel it completely. Through my whole body. The intense love he had for me throughout his lifetime. And how it was this very love — not ambition, not discipline, not grit — that had carried me through the most difficult challenges of my life. Long after he was gone. His love was still doing the carrying.

In that moment, I realized how I had been blessed with this incredible angle of love and understanding. It was through the people in my life who showed up for me. Without anyone asking them to. They just appeared — to help me, that kid reaching up with empty hands — completely of their own free will, and showed me empathy.

And for me to continue spreading his love in the world. Through mentorship. Through accountability. Through genuinely showing up for others with such enthusiasm, such ferocity of presence, that my brother might still be alive today — if he had been on the receiving end of it.

I called it COE. A covenant we all signed. Of education. Of being there for others.

But really — and I suspect you already know this — it’s just another way of expressing love. The kind of love my brother showed me, long before the darkness took him.

What We Measure

Our most granular success metric — the atom from which all future success and impact follows — is this: the moment someone sees in themselves a newfound power or ability they had not seen before. Or believed they could possess. The moment they recall a glimpse of the Godly power within themselves.

That single atom of realization. That is our proof of concept. That is our currency.

And this proof of success forces us to answer to our mission — the question we ask ourselves at every milestone, at every turn of the continuous development cycle:

How do we show up for as many people as possible, as early as possible, in a way that makes their efforts visible and their potential undeniable — because they reawaken the Godly power within themselves?

What Comes Next

Our very first step is to share the 7 Teachings with as many people as possible, ecologically. The 7 Teachings is a system I created that, when followed, brings ongoing success and happiness to the practitioner. Not as a promise. As a pattern. Our plan to scale is to disseminate the 7 Teachings through cards, cohorts, and one-on-one guidance.

And after that, we intend to announce a Purpose Prize of one million dollars — awarded to the school, youth organization, or community program that succeeds in producing the most measurable improvement in teen purpose clarity within eighteen months of using the 7 Teachings program and methodology.

One million dollars. Because when you’re serious about a thing, you put weight behind it.

Because the cobbler in Floripa was right. Someone taught you to walk. And now there’s a kid out there, reaching up with empty hands, waiting for you to return the favor.

Continue Your Journey

The manifesto is just the beginning. Explore the 7 Teachings that form the foundation of COE:

• Teaching 1: Positive Mental Attitude – The foundation of all transformation
• Teaching 2: Purity of Thought – Discover your life’s purpose
• Teaching 3: Vision – Build your future before it exists
• Teaching 4: Courage – Take action despite fear
• Teaching 5: Charisma – Inspire others to join your mission
• Teaching 6: Sanctuary – Protect your vision from distraction
• Teaching 7: Rhythm – Build sustainably over time