TESLA & Alexander’s Discovery Unwrapped.

Who cries while reading a book about how to engineer a car?

I do.

I am reading “Power Play” by Tim Higgens, where he documents the rise of the first new automobile company since 1923 that could challenge the dinosaurs. Elon Musk succeeded. Tesla is now worth more than Toyota, GM & Ford combined.

Why would I cry reading a story like that?

Because – in my heart of hearts – I carry a vision like Musk to bring about a revolution that would help humanity in a significant way. I cry because I am no Musk. I am so far from delivering anything of significance. I see it; I just can’t do it.

Of course, I refer to Alexander’s Discovery and the potential it has to disrupt vast areas of human behaviour in ways people can not comprehend - unless they have experienced the magic of Alexander’s Discovery.

I cry because I missed being able to make my vision real. 

I tried. 

I built a school that turned out to be the largest ever seen since Alexander started teaching in 1894. To continue the Telsa metaphor – BodyChance was like my Roadster. For those who don’t know, the Roadster was the car Tesla built to prove that electric vehicles could be cool and work better than gas guzzlers. It never made any real money - selling only about 2,450 of them - but it was a proof-of-concept car that made the next steps possible.

My “Roadster” was BodyChance – a proof-of-concept Alexander training college.

BodyChance proves that Alexander’s Discovery can be commercially successful at a larger scale than anyone had previously attempted. We grew into having 9 full-time employees, 150+ trainees attending Studios in three different locations.

Think of BodyChance more as a college than a training school – a college cobbled together with enough innovation and vision to break through the barriers that held back other schools from expanding their reach. BodyChance isn’t based on one all-seeing Training Director. Instead, there is a faculty and supporting administrative staff. Five International Associate Directors visit the school annually (or did) working together with a local team of 3 Training Directors and my Self as the Principal.

BodyChance is objectively far more rigorous compared to other Alexander trainings. Our curriculum is organised into three Stages and four courses: BodyThinking, ThinkingBody, TeachingMethods and Book Course. Each Stage of Training has its own set of criteria before a trainee can move to the next stage. There are 29 different kinds of tests, assessments and tasks that must be successfully completed to graduate. Miss any of these 29, and you don’t qualify. As I said – more like a College. 

Can you name an Alexander school today with a similar rigour?

It is also the most expensive training in the world, by quite a significant factor. However, profit was continually reinvested in the school in the true style of a Silicon Valley startup. As one person put back in the heydays: 

“BodyChance is like a plane that is already flying while they are still building it!”

However, each time I tried to build a new BodyChance – first in Sydney in 2009, then next in Los Angeles in 2013 – I failed. I also lost a lot of money, and it broke my heart for lots of different reasons. Out of those experiences, I realised I had to do it all in Japan first.

BodyChance was my Roadster, but what was my Model S going to be?

After building the Roadster, Tesla’s next step was the Model S. The Model S was built to prove that there could be a cool mass-produced luxury electric sedan, not just the flashy, expensive Roadster sports car. Tesla only sold about 2,450 Roadsters, but they planned Model S to be more mainstream, proving it could be done.

After failing to repeat BodyChance’s success in other countries, my new idea for an Alexander “Model S” was to take Alexander’s Discovery into the corporate world of Japan. I even put together a game plan in ATSuccess, which you can purchase if you have similar flights of fancy. Scroll down to the bottom of the page – it is available in three parts…

https://bodychance.mykajabi.com/store

I wanted to demonstrate that hiring a BodyChance-trained Alexander teacher full-time would pay better dividends to a company than hiring any other kind of HR support staff.

It was my growth flywheel – if I could demonstrate that you could get a well paid corporate job as a Graduate of BodyChance, then it would become much easier to attract the trainees needed to build more BodyChance Colleges around Japan.

I also had wilder, more extravagant ideas that fancifully led to a billion-dollar corporation – like Tesla’s Model 3 mainstream car. Alexander’s Discovery can go mainstream - I still have a vision of how it could be done. I just don’t have the hotspur to deliver it.

I started to execute my “Model S” plan two years before COVID-19 hit. We were about to sign a year-long contract with a major Japanese corporation when COVID-19 hit.

However, my plan didn’t fail because of COVID-19; it failed because I lost my insatiable hunger to prove it could be done. Ironically, I became financially independent because of a big bet I placed on Tesla shares and no longer needed to work. I essentially gave up. I needed to be 43 again, but I was 63 and sick of the stress and strain - I was too lazy to do want to keep doing it.

That failure eats away in my heart as I am reading Higgins’ book about the rise and rise of Tesla. I won’t see this vision in my lifetime, but I still believe a revolution is possible.

Is there a hungry Alexscovery teacher out there who still carries fanciful ideas? 

Please drop this older man a line – I’d love to help you.