An Unexpected Journey from Educator to Entrepreneur and Back Again

If you had asked me five years ago if I would ever entertain the idea of starting a school, I would have laughed. It wasn’t even in the back of my mind. Yet, here I am entering my third year as the cofounder of Acton Academy Fort Lauderdale, a school that now serves nearly 40 families—including mine. Life has a tendency to surprise—and stretch—us in ways we never would have thought possible.

My unexpected journey from disillusioned educator to ambitious entrepreneur and back to education innovator has now led me to my newest adventure: joining the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. It’s a role that feels like a culmination of everything I’ve worked on up to this point—a personal “hero’s journey,” if you will, coming full circle to face challenges I never could have tackled without the diverse experiences of the past three decades.

My path has been anything but linear. After 10 years of teaching, coaching, and earning my M.Ed. in Student Development, I was primed for a well-rounded career in education. But like many young idealists, I quickly became disillusioned with the very system I was meant to serve. Out of restlessness I learned what later would become a valuable business skill: how to pivot.

For the next 20 years, I immersed myself in the world of entrepreneurship. I owned a digital marketing agency, consulted for businesses, coached both athletes and executives, and wrote a book about sales strategies. Each venture was a crash course in real-world value creation, adaptability, and the raw courage it takes to put your best ideas on the line for others to judge in the marketplace.

I couldn’t see it then, but it has become clear that my time first in education and then in the business world as an entrepreneur was preparing me eventually to combine those seemingly disparate experiences as an education entrepreneur.

In 2021, my wife Martina and I founded Acton Academy Fort Lauderdale. It isn’t just another school; it is a project to reimagine the school experience itself. Acton Academy is an expanding network of learner-driven schools. It began in 2009 when Jeff and Laura Sandefer created a single school for their children in Austin, Texas. Today, the Acton Academy network includes over 300 independently owned and operated schools serving thousands of students. We embraced Acton’s learner-driven model that prioritizes personal responsibility plus real-world skills, and the kind of adaptive thinking that thrives in our rapidly changing world.

I believe that human progress is driven by small moments of courage in the face of dilemmas and tough decisions. For Acton Academy Fort Lauderdale, our first moment of entrepreneurial courage came when we opened our doors with four learners and immediately faced a zoning issue that forced us to find a new location. What initially seemed like a straightforward process revealed unexpected complexities. Our historical building was zoned for a “learning center” but not a “school”—a distinction that would have necessitated prohibitively expensive updates to meet modern industrial school building codes, regardless of our small size or the building’s existing safety features.

It was at that time our team had to stop and reflect. Instead of backing out, we decided to double down and find a new building. That experience taught us the value of perseverance and determination, and our little school has since grown tenfold.

A Vision for Educational Change

Now, as I step into my new role at FEE, I’m bringing not only my experience as an entrepreneur but also a vision for the future of choice and options in education that is both exciting and, if you ask many families, desperately needed.

Here’s the harsh truth: Our current education system is struggling to prepare for a world that is shifting before our eyes. In many ways, traditional classrooms are built for a world that no longer exists. We’re facing a Cambrian explosion of technological and societal changes, such as artificial intelligence (AI), social media, and shifting global dynamics. I am not sure educational models designed for the Industrial Revolution can be retrofitted for tomorrow’s world. I think we need to adopt new ways of looking at what it means “to school.”

This is where educational entrepreneurship—or “edupreneurship”—comes in. We need innovators who can bridge the gap between traditional education and the skills and ideas needed for tomorrow’s world. We need people who can build learning environments that foster creativity, adaptability, and real-world problem-solving.

One example of this innovation in action is our local Children’s Business Fair. Each year, our school hosts budding entrepreneurs as young as five or six years old. Earlier this year, we had 65 participants, some of whom made hundreds of dollars in a single day. But the real magic happens when we see these kids return year after year, taking their entrepreneurial aspirations to the next level. It’s a tangible demonstration of how early exposure to entrepreneurship can shape a child’s future through a sense of agency. If they want something, they don’t have to sit back and wait for someone to grant it. They can get creative and courageous.

At FEE, my role and mission is clear: to walk the walk myself as a school founder, while championing and supporting fellow edupreneurs with tools, resources, and stories of inspiration. It is my goal to help more rockstar educators make the leap from conventional classrooms to creating and running innovative learning communities. I am also eager to help parents discover what is possible for their children beyond traditional schooling.

The future of education isn’t going to be built in boardrooms or policy meetings. It needs the day-by-day insights and actions of individuals courageous enough to challenge the status quo with new possibilities.

For the educators feeling stifled by the system: your instincts are spot-on. There is a better way, and the world needs your expertise and passion more than ever. You don’t have to go it alone.

To the parents frustrated with one-size-fits-all education: you’re also not alone. The options for personalized, engaging learning are expanding every day. Let’s help you get connected. For starters, be sure to visit FEE’s LiberatED website for links to the LiberatED podcast and an interactive map of creative learning environments that have been featured on the podcast and in related articles.

To the experienced entrepreneurs looking for your next challenge—one that is worthy of your time, energy, and investment—I believe education is the ultimate frontier with the greatest long-term impact. It’s where innovation can truly change lives and shape the future.

We’re standing at the threshold of a new era in education. It’s going to be messy, challenging, and, at times, downright stupefying. But it’s also going to be exhilarating, rewarding, and world-changing.

The question isn’t whether education needs to change or will change—it’s already happening. The question is: How​ do you want to co-create this future of education?