Hi Reader,

For a while now you've been reading me on Substack, and that has meant a lot to me; thank you.

I wanted to write you a proper hello rather than drop you straight into my Faster Zebra world, because I'm taking this to the next level, and I'd love you to come along.

Substack is staying. My writing there is contemplative and exploratory, naming what's broken and sharing what helps. Faster Zebra is the other half of the same instinct. It's where I build a world focused on a new way of learning.

So, what is Faster Zebra?

It's my latest education company. It steers away from "courses" and into practical learning kits, and from August, a cross-skill, intergenerational community where people of every age and stage learn from each other. The whole thing rests on one belief: good things come to those who make, and as you build something, it builds you back.

Here's why it's built around three parts, Mind, Skills and Soul.

This looks at the whole human. Most education picks a slice, a tactic, a skill, a mindset hack, and hopes the rest catches up. I've come to believe you move forward as a whole person, or you don't really move at all. Mind is how you see. Skills is what your hands can make. Soul is who you become through the work. Hold all three together and the building changes you as much as you change the thing. That belief is the foundation under everything I make.

And it holds at any stage. Whether you're starting your first business, running your own, or building something inside a company, the real questions turn out to be the same. How do I begin. How do I keep going. How do I know it's any good. How do I stay myself while I do it. That shared set of questions is why the community brings people at every stage into the same room, to work the same questions side by side.

A Dazzle of Zebras

​Our Learning Community has a name. A dazzle is what you call a group of zebras, and this is the beating heart of Faster Zebra. Here's what makes it different:

• It runs in seasons that keep refreshing, each built around a theme, so there's always something live to learn and to build towards.
• There are four calls a week, themed by day:
  • Monday for business and money,
  • Tuesday for brand and experience,
  • Wednesday for innovation,
  • Thursday for creativity and mindset.
• Each call sets a precise activity that builds into the season.
• It's project-based and phenomena-based, so you learn by working on real things. Anyone can spin up a course from a prompt now, and that's exactly why this isn't one.
• A new founder sits beside a seasoned professional, both circling the same challenge from different angles, each bringing what they've lived. That's where the generations meet, the way the real world actually works.

The idea was inspired by an ABC series I watched; Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds. The older people brought wisdom and experience, the children brought curiosity, innocence and joy, and both came alive. I'd spent years watching people leave portfolio bootcamps with two or three portfolio pieces and little feel for business, brand, working with stakeholders, or real collaboration. True collaboration needs a diversity of experience, thought and problem in one room. The Dazzle is built for exactly that.

Which brings me to this newsletter.

Once a week, I'll send you a short set of questions that move through Mind, Skills and Soul, pointed at whatever you're building right now. A business, a team, a brand, a body of work, a side project you can't put down. Something to help you see more clearly. Something to do this week. Something about who the work is turning you into. Questions, because a good one does more than any advice I could hand you. You answer them against your own work, and the work answers back.

If that sounds like your kind of thing, wonderful. You don't need to do anything, it'll land once a week. And if you've got a minute right now, hit reply and tell me what you're working on. I read every one.

And you'll likely see me switching between these two statements, the core of what I believe about what it is I've been working on for the past 2+ years:

+ As you build something, it builds you back.

+ Good things come to those who make.

With love,
Charbel