Shaan Patel was born in India but later became a US immigrant. At a younger age, he got a job which helped him save some money to pay for the property in Las Vegas. His parents decided to purchase a hotel instead of a home.
After getting some profit within a few days, they bought a petrol station next to where they were living. So as a teenager, he was working on both businesses while learning some life hacks in the entrepreneurial world.
Shaan Patel decided to seek a chance to join college for further education. However, he failed drastically on his first SAT exam and decided to repeat it. He got the highest SAT score from his hard work, and many scholarships were looking after him.
Some universities invited him while other companies wanted his skills. That was the beginning of his bright future because he made new connections. After deep consultation from his parents, Shaan Patel decided to use the opportunity to start a SAT exam prep school.
Currently, Shaan Patel is the CEO of Prep Expert Test Preparation. He has won several awards, including ABC’s Shark Tank from Mark Cuban. That is one of the most admired awards in the world.
I spent most of my life in the Sky Ranch Motel, my family-owned. While still a teenager, I saw many young people consuming drugs while others became a prostitute. I was very ashamed of the Motel we were living in, but my mother always gave me hope.
But am very thankful because years later, I became the valedictorian of our class. To my surprise, I got a gift from US President Gorge Bush in 2007. That’s was a presidential scholar that only two students win from each state. My 2400 score on the SAT paper drove me to start a company.
Before the exams, I had applied to more than ten universities that rejected my offer. Among the Ivy League schools are Princeton, Brown, Havard, etc. In addition, Stanford also never replied to my letter. In my mind, I think the Asian-Americans find it hard to apply to colleges and secure an opportunity. There is some presence of face discrimination.
Despite all these rejections, I got a fully-funded scholarship at the University of South California.
I pursued an MD program which I had been interested in since my childhood. On many occasions, I would involve myself with the emergency department in schools which developed into a medical career. The medical school at USC gave me a lot of challenges. Yet I kept pushing to become a physician.
Most of the time, I like being busy. After completing my undergraduate degree, I was ready to take a master’s class in med school. Then I decided to launch SAT prep books officially to assist students in getting prepared for their exams. My effort was unsuccessful. One of the responses from other experienced writers was that ‘I have no writing personalities.’ I really appreciated their feedback because it was still a learning process.
I took down the mistake I had made and decided to launch a website using $900 from scholarship money. The 2400 Experts went viral after some advertisements. My first course on the platform got almost 376 students. After that, there was a gradual improvement each day, and I was a happy man.
After the summer, I trained some qualified instructors on using the platform. Most of my board members were from California. I was very happy when McGraw Hill approached me about a book deal. It is one of the greatest education publishing companies in the USA. I managed to publish my first book called “SAT 2400 in Just 7 Steps”.
I juggled between my medical licensing board exams and taking care of my company. Some days I will go for 36 hours surgical rotation that could make me forget about my business. Despite being in love with both of them, I had to make a perfect decision.
After much consultation, I took a two-year leave from my medical school. I had only done with my first year at Yale School of Management. I drove most of my attention to 2400 Experts. The company has grown to $4 million in total sales.
In 2016, I had expanded the company to other new cities, like New York. Furthermore, I have added some ACT prep resources. Finally, after building a successful board team, I decided to go back to school to get my master’s.
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Currently, we educate students on ACT and SAT prep courses worldwide. 80% of our students learn remotely, and they enjoy our program. We have managed to set physical classes in less than ten cities in the United States. But with online courses, it’s much more flexible, especially with the covid19 pandemic. We have students from India, Dubai, Singapore, and Europe taking our courses. Although we are expanding our programs, we mainly focus on ACT and SAT prep.
Currently, we are raising the Gen Z generation. They were born in the era of technology, and they would rather attend online classes over physical ones.
To every entrepreneur out there, try and read the Outliers posits hour by Malcolm Gladwell. It will teach you how to become an expert in various fields like music, sport, or academics. Similar knowledge is applied in business. The writer talks about taking 10,000 hours to build a successful career or business.
Before I set up my business, I could sit in a corner and question myself about something that I could do well. On most occasions, I would come out with the worst answer. But I realized the SAT was also an opportunity. That’s how a person should analyze a business before diving into it.
By now, I can say Shaan Patel has spent more than 10,000 hours studying a lot f SAT exams to prepare curriculum and write books about it. I believe in hard work. If you put a lot of energy into something and remain consistent, it will bore fruits. So, As you add value to society, make sure you succeed and build authority in your kingdom.
According to my statistics, US education is very expensive, especially in universities and colleges. Many students struggle to pay the debt, accumulating to almost $1.6 trillion, a report by usnews. So there is need to look for a better way to offer an affordable education.
There are some education systems that I like in the United States. These include introducing international Collaboration, Charter School, professional development, and online courses.
We should focus more on teaching our children STEM courses because the future is driven by technology. Countries like India and China are doing good, and we have to compete with them.
Then, I am always pissed off with other parents who take their children to school, and they are never concerned about the education of the students. How could you do that? There is always a space for a parent to fill in students’ education journey. Let’s learn to take responsibility.
Back to the STEM issue, the institution must have a special department for their students to get resources for innovation. Here are the three best areas to focus on:
- Mobile application: let’s teach our students how to build mobile applications because most business traffic comes from mobile. In addition, almost 67% of the population in the world possesses smartphones.
- Artificial intelligence: This is a subbranch of technology disrupting many industries. It is the ability of a machine to do something like a normal human being. It’s a good field to venture into.
- Medicine-This is a course that has remained under research for many years. There is a need for more researchers, and we encourage more students to join the medical industry.
I would encourage girls and young women to join more STEM courses. When you walk in over 100 STEM schools, you will find almost 75%of the population being male. That’s is a bad ratio. Women have their roles too in the STEM industry. If we are looking towards solving an ambiguous problem, we need equality.
For sure, if I become a minister for education in the United States, I will ban students from accessing smartphones in the classroom. They are a source of destruction. I wonder how a parent would allow their son to walk away with a smartphone to school.
Daily I always walk with Mark Cuban quote,” Work like there is someone working 24 hours a day to take it away from you”. Mark was an investor in my business. The quote reminds me that any success I achieve should not be taken for granted.
Currently am still learning from my business experience. I need to get more information about investing. Warren Buffet is one of my role models for financial journeys. So am trying to acquire his knowledge. I believe I will be a financially free person and become a great philanthropist one day.
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