Best business practices tend to differ from country to country and culture to culture.  This can sometimes lead to miscommunications and misunderstandings when business partnerships are formed and knowledge is shared, due to a misinterpretation of information.

Genius Group, a global edtech and entrepreneur education group, takes a global approach to business and knowledge transfer, one that is not confined by tradition and outdated curriculums that seem somewhat irrelevant in the modern world. Through the various programmes available to its community, there is a clear ethos of realising your purpose and passion and ultimately utilising your skill set to build personal wealth and financial freedom.

However, two entrepreneurs, within the Genius community, have taken it a step further by re-creating the group’s existing entrepreneurial education programmes and content for their own country markets and communities.

An Nguyen

Vietnamese-born, now US based, An Nguyen, joined the Entrepreneurs Institute’s Wealth Dynamics Masters programme as he wanted to learn how to create a dynamic business plan covering every element of his business concept as well as a step-by-step strategy. 

Not only did An meet inspirational mentors and like-minded people, but it also led to the start of his partnership with GeniusU, the edtech platform, and the creation of an educational academy dedicated to Vietnamese entrepreneurs around the world.  SuperX Academy is not only translating the educational tools and programmes within GeniusU into Vietnamese but also organising virtual events to bring the community together even if they are physically displaced around the world. An’s goal is to empower Vietnamese entrepreneurs and challenge outdated business practices.

An’s personal mindset was challenged as well when he first joined the Masters programme thanks to his long-standing cultural beliefs which he later realised had not set him up for success in a globalised world. One of those beliefs was about people’s skills and abilities. Traditionally, in many cultures, including Asian and Western ones, we are taught that we must work on our weaknesses. However, what he learnt from Roger James Hamilton, the founder of Genius Group, is that your individual purpose and passions come from a deeper understanding of knowing what you are good at and building on those strengths to the highest possible level.

An applied this mindset to his business and started to teach it to others within his Vietnamese community, achieving amazing results and feedback. An commented: “In Asia, we are trained to see the flaws in people and keep pounding on them. But now, I am helping people to focus on their strengths instead.”

An also learnt about the eight Talent Dynamics profiles which all have their own strengths and challenges.  Understanding the profiles helped his team to gel together and spot potential opportunities to work better and cover what may be challenges for some team members but easier to handle for others. He was able to assign tasks to team members according to their profiles ensuring that everyone got into and stayed in their flow. 

An added: “I knew that my community would welcome and appreciate having the content and programmes, offered by Entrepreneurs Institute and GeniusU, translated into Vietnamese.  Moreover, I’m able to share with them Roger’s vision of the future of entrepreneurial education.  Partnering with the group, I have grown as an entrepreneur and am now able to help my community develop their own businesses in a way that I never would have thought possible.”

Tamami Ushiki

Tamami Ushiki, based in Japan, first started her partnership with Entrepreneurs Institute back in 2007. Tamami realised that self-education did not really exist in Japan; there was very little content online and the majority of businesses did not offer courses or programmes to employees. Spotting this gap in the market and having participated in some of the programmes herself, Tamami agreed on a partnership deal with Entrepreneurs Institute to translate their programmes and products, such as Wealth Dynamics, into Japanese and promote them to the Japanese market. This resulted in her creating her own business, Japan Dynamics, and she continues to bring the best programmes to her community to help them start and scale up their businesses. 

Tamami commented “Whereas Roger is a Creator profile, I am a Lord profile which is great for our partnership as Roger’s strength is in the big-picture vision of a project, stimulated by cutting-edge topics and creating new programmes and products.  On the contrary, my strength is in taking what has already been created to my own market and community, when the time is right and only if I think it’s suitable for them – I’m very focused on detail so it’s a win-win partnership.”

By challenging their own mindsets about learning and development, both Tamami and An are now mentoring others in their communities to do the same.  As Roger says: “Unlearn your knowledge about what WAS working to understand what is working NOW.”

By Roger James Hamilton, Founder and CEO of Genius Group