Every week I write to the incredible team at my company, Valenture Institute, about the intersection between work and personal development. Through this blog, I hope to share my thoughts with a broader audience about work as a pilgrimage of self discovery.

LATEST BLOG POST

Oct 10, 20222 min

Order and chaos

The Ying-Yang symbol has its roots in Taoism. If you look at the symbol, you will notice that the white half has a black circle inside of...

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PAST BLOG POSTS

Oct 10, 20222 min

Order and chaos

The Ying-Yang symbol has its roots in Taoism. If you look at the symbol, you will notice that the white half has a black circle inside of...

Oct 3, 20222 min

"Finding balance" is only good advice if...

My mom always told me that we should seek to find balance in everything we do. It's great advice, and yet I’ve always struggled with the...

Sep 26, 20222 min

Lean in, or move on?

One of the primary questions we seem to ask ourselves in the most important areas of our lives, is whether we should continue doing what...

Sep 19, 20222 min

Scarcity and value

We live in a culture which values things that are rare. With most of the western world operating in a free market system, it's no wonder...

Sep 12, 20224 min

Feeling, Meaning, Healing.

I'm reading Shantaram again right now. For those of you who haven't read it, I think it might be one of the most beautiful books ever...

Sep 5, 20223 min

Buffet or set menu?

As human beings, we want to belong - our evolutionary drive is to be loved and accepted. Historically, if we were loved and accepted by...

Aug 29, 20223 min

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

In my early career, I didn't like public speaking. I remember my first telephone interview on 5fm in 2007 - we had a chance to get some...

Robert Paddock CEO Valenture Institute - CREDIT Arena. Ruvan Boshoff (2).jpg

Robert is the Co-founder of GetSmarter, an online education company that has educated over 200,000 working professionals from 154 countries around the world, and partners with Universities such as Harvard, Cambridge, MIT, Oxford, LSE and Stanford. GetSmarter sold to Nasdaq-listed 2U in 2017. Rob is a founding board member of Injini, Africa’s first EdTech incubator, an Executive Director of Hubble Studios, an education technology agency in Cape Town, and an advisor to a number of online education companies in Africa and abroad. Rob is now the Founder and CEO of Valenture Institute, a social enterprise on a mission to turn physical limitations into digital opportunities by enabling students to choose an aspirational school regardless of their circumstances. Robert is also the founding trustee of the iBhodi Trust, a bold project to create a new blueprint for delivering high-quality, affordable education to students throughout South Africa who need it most.