BATJIN Boldbat - Tomujin Academy Raised 48B To Help Mongolian Kids Go To Their Dream Schools
Interviewed by Oyungerel Munkhbat. Photographed by Batzul Gerelsaikhan
Full name: Batjin Boldbat
Hobby Alumni: 2010
Higher Education: Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government, Williams College, USA; French Studies from American University Center of Provence, France
Sector: Education
Current Workplace: Tomujin Academy & UB Passport
Languages: French, English, Mongolian, little bit of Russian. Learning Japanese.
Countries Lived In: England, France, Mongolia, and USA
Frequented Website: Slack, Trello (95 % of the time), Engadget, New York Times, Quartz, Medium (5 % of the time)
Current phone: iPhoneX
App To Recommend: Headspace for meditation, Quartz for news, Gymaholic for gym
Books To Recommend: Build something that matters by Blake Mycoskie, Built to Last by Jim Collins, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight, From the Ground Up by Howard Schultz. Principles by Ray Dalio, Good to great by Jim Collins. Anything by Tony Robbins.
“Doing your own thing is not “freedom” at all... At a (regular) job, you don’t have to clean, you don’t have to do the accounting, you don’t have to do the legal work, you don’t have to do HR, you don’t have to do anything except your own very tiny scope of job. If you want to be an actual entrepreneur, and start an actual startup, you have to do everything. ”
AT HOBBY SCHOOL
1) How many years have you studied at Hobby School?
From 5th grade until graduation (2005-2010). So, six years.
2) Where have you studied before Hobby? What were the differences?
Previously, I studied at Midfurlong Middle School (2003-2005) in England where I fell in love with football and I also learnt to speak in English, which really helped me get into Hobby School. In Mongolia, I also studied at two Russian schools - Erel School (now known as “English School of Mongolia”) (1999-2003) and Galaxy Pre-School (1998-1999).
The differences were stark. Russian schools were very different. They were supposedly the best private schools back then, but it was very similar to Hobby School to be honest, with many foreign teachers and they also taught classes in Mongolian language. I was very young, so I cannot tell in details, but all I remember is that the Russian schools were very strict. In England, things were very free. At Hobby, our Principal Oyuntsetseg Durvuljin was really strict on culture in behaviour, righteousness, upbringing and “Хүмүүжил” in Mongolian. It didn’t matter whose child you were - rich or poor. She made sure to send this message to all: “If you are messing up on that front, get out of my school!”. I am so thankful that we were educated like that and our alumni do not have too many spoiled kids. I loved how Hobby School wasn’t about the cool building, cool table, but it was about the content and the quality of education and culture, which are the things I value highly. Thank God Hobby accepted me because I failed in all the entrance exams, except the English ones. I couldn’t write in Mongolian or do math well after England and all I knew was English.
3) What kind of a student were you?
Very active and loud. I struggled a bit from 5th grade, but from my 8th grade I improved and became academically good to a point where I started getting all As, even on my math classes. However, because of my loud mouth, I got into a lot of problems. I was very opinionated and I always questioned teachers. On the other hand, I was in the debate team that went to New York for the first time and we were also the class that started this trend of going to the U.S. for colleges with our classmate and dear friend Bilguun Ulammandakh leading the trend by getting into Harvard University. So I was in a love-hate relationship with the school.
4) Anything you would do differently if you went back to high school again?
Nothing. I wouldn’t change anything. We have a wonderful alumni. In fact, I work with Tuvshin Erdenebaatar, who’s a 2012 alumnus from Hobby, at Ulaanbaatar Passport (“UBP”). When I reached out to him and asked if he wanted to work with me, he remembered me, because I was that loud guy. If I were a quiet guy, then I don’t think anybody would know who I am now.
I was telling Batzul Gerelsaikhan this morning that Hobby Alumni is such a great initiative that connects these alumni. The biggest benefit of studying anywhere is the network and it is not the “books”, because you can get books from anywhere. What Hobby gave us is this cool network of not just alumni, but also teachers such as Danny Doucette and Joe McIntyre who guided us to go to the U.S.
5) What’s your fondest memory in high school and who was your favorite teacher?
The fondest memory at Hobby? Man, there’s a lot! I loved high school. I think maybe it is this debate competition organized by the UN where we used to do PSA videos, interviews and collect points. We - Bilguun Ulammandakh, Anujin Lkhagvadorj, Uyanga Galtbaatar, Oyumaa Daichinkhuu and I - won the 2nd place in the world, and got invited to New York, USA.
Hobby School Debate Team in New York, 2010. Photo from Batjin Boldbat.
Also, I always liked the annual talent shows, which were very fun. When I look back, the secret conversations during class and trying to laugh without making a noise were the best memories. I used to do a lot of that with Bilguun. Talking about really dumb, silly things and laughing about it. Most of which I shouldn’t share on this interview.
As for a favorite teacher, mine would be Altankhuyag, who was our Social sciences teacher. Unfortunately, he passed away when we were in high school. Altankhuyag teacher was a really cool guy who taught us things outside our curriculum. He taught us how to be an adult, play Beatles songs on our guitars and we talked very philosophical things. Obviously Danny Doucette and Joseph Clark McIntyre deserve a shout-out. Without them, Hobby wouldn’t be Hobby. In all seriousness, I think if they didn’t exist, my dear friend Bilguun would’ve probably never gone to Harvard, which would mean people like me would not go to the U.S.
6) What influenced you to choose your major and university for your bachelors degree?
I majored in political science and French cultural studies, for no big reason. Here is why:
A lot of people said “You talk a lot. You argue a lot. Be a lawyer”. I watched a couple of movies, and I thought I would wear nice suits and defend people that are innocent, which seemed very cool to me. When I went to the U.S., everyone said it’s better to study law in my master’s degree.
I wanted to be a corporate international lawyer that helps Mongolian corporations work with international corporations. So for my bachelor’s degree, I said I’ll triple major in political science, history, and economics, none of which I majored in. Well I majored in one, that one was political science. I wanted to know the geopolitics of countries. History, don’t know why. I thought I was interested in it. Then economics. So, I took a lot of classes in those three subjects in my first two years. Midway through college, I realized economics is just math and boring to me, so I stopped that. History class also. It seemed very hard for me to memorize historical facts. One thing, for example, is that I’m not good with quizzes. I don’t remember anything quiz-worthy.
I went to France for a year in my Junior year, so I couldn’t change any majors when I came back. So I took a lot of political science class and I took 9 classes in psychology. The psychology classes are the only courses that I use now, at Tomujin Academy and UB Passport. It’s social psychology, human psychology, and development psychology - all useful to me and I love it. I wanted to major in it, but I just didn’t have the time. If I wanted to major in it, I would have had to study another semester, you see. But the unique part about it is that my wife was pregnant with my first son during my senior spring, so I didn’t really want to study more.
I chose Williams, this might be the stupidest fact, but I chose it because it had a very good football team.
7) How did the football thing work out?
I’m one of those people who love doing what they do. I wanted to be a football player. I played here and there. I played a lot when I was in high school and middle school. I thought I had talent. I still do. I still believe that I do have talent, but I just don’t have the capabilities now. Williams had the best division three soccer team and it was the number one Liberal Arts college and offered me 100% financial aid - it’s a phenomenal school. But to be truly honest with you, in 2010 when I was making that decision, it was because of the soccer team. I thought, OK I’m going to do the tryouts and play a couple of years in the MLS and go to Arsenal, which is my favorite team.
When I was preparing to go to the U.S. (by preparing I mean not reading books but playing football, all the time), I was playing in two different competitions - amateur and semi-pro. Then I tore 98% of my meniscus, which is a ligament between your knee. You need it for balance and for walking. If you don’t have it you basically don’t have a knee. At that time, Mongolia didn’t have anything so they suggested taking my knee out. That means I would have to replace my knee in 4 years, and I can’t replace my knee at 20 something. I emailed my school saying, this is bad, should I take another gap year because I couldn’t fly economy. My knee wasn’t bending. They had to fly me out business class. My school said, we’ll pay 800 USD to 1,000 USD to pay you out. I flew to Korea, got my surgery, and I flew back to Mongolia. In 5 days, I flew to Williams in crutches and didn’t walk until February. I finished my fall semester of Freshman year without walking. So it was a very interesting way to enter, and I exited very interestingly: with a baby. My son was born 7 days before my graduation ceremony and my wife lived in my dorm during my last semester.
8) Wow. What other options did you have besides the university you got into?
Not many. Northeastern, Northwestern and couple of other colleges. All of the big names waitlisted me. Columbia rejected me, which was my number one choice.
9) What was America like?
The honest answer is that I don’t think I’ve experienced America. We were in a very small town, called North Adams. North Adams and Williamstown are the 2 towns that I was in. I don’t know. I have this weird relationship with America. I think America’s cool in a sense that education and the opportunity is cool, but culturally, I felt it was not. Very CV-driven, very individual driven. It didn’t rub that well on me. But then again, I was only in a liberal arts college in Massachusetts. I would love to try out San Francisco, California, maybe Central America just to see what it’s like. I was with very preppy kids. So it’s different. I don’t know if that’s America. It might be just me.
When I lived in France for a cultural exchange program, I loved it. I think France is the best place for me, it seemed. It’s not as interdependent as Mongolia. Mongolians can’t do things alone. They need their buddies with them to get their car washed. So I’m not on that spectrum. America is the independent spectrum. Individually driven. It was very professional, even the way they handled friendship. France was a very good mix of both. You’re independent but you’re also interdependent. They weren’t 100% career driven. I’m not 100% career driven and I’m not all about climbing that ladder. I think I’m very comfortable when I’m at a dinner table talking to the people that I love about stupid things like why is this candy shaped that way, to politics to just business to whatever. I loved France, I was there for one semester and begged my school to extend it. I went there spring of my Junior year, and I was there my fall of senior. So at Williams, it’s not allowed for you to spend a year abroad in your senior year, or your Freshman year. So you have to petition for it. I did, I said it was my cultural adventure. If I don’t spend another six months, I’m going to miss out. They said yes. So I stayed there for a whole year.
“It’s highly fulfilling to see people realize their own potential...
What I’m doing, or what is Tomujin doing, is allowing people to become more of who they are. I get so much energy out of that.”
CAREER
10) What was your first paying job?
It was at Hobby School where I taught kids debate class during my gap year. I also taught SATs at Best University Opportunity Program (“BUOP” or “Best Center”) in the summer. My jobs were always in the educational sector.
11) Where do you work now ?
I work as the Executive Director at Tomujin Academy. I’m shifting to Alumni Director, and Chairman of the Board there. I also work as the Executive Director at UBP Group.
UBP is now involved with UBP Media, which is a digital marketing agency. I used to be the CEO there, but now, Tuvshin is the CEO. I’m more of an advisor there. We have UBP Events, which is an event organizing company; Vintage Trading, which is an import and export company of beverages currently, like soda, nutritional powder, wine, beer, like FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods); and UBP Arts, which is an augmented reality technology solutions company. The first 3 are quite established and we have a good clientele already. The last one is a startup and it is kind of a secret. We’ll announce more of it in June/July. We went to Singapore recently for these projects.
12) What do you appreciate most about the work you do now?
The impact and the changes happening around me - my surrounding environment, businesses, and the people I work with. With my team and the students, you can see visible changes within 6 months. We are now seeing our first graduates from college. As of date, we have over 600 alumni and we raised 48 billion MNT in financial aid for Mongolian students. I love it when we get messages saying that Tomujin helped them realize who they were. It’s highly fulfilling to see people realize their own potential, and get out of that rat race of just doing things that their parents or society told them to do. What I’m doing, or what is Tomujin doing, is allowing people to become more of who they are. I get so much energy out of that.
On UBP side, I love disruption. In high school, my biggest problem was that I talked too much. But I didn’t talk crap, I asked why this class is like this, why are you making us do this homework. I questioned a lot, because I really wanted to understand. Just like this, I ask why customers get $hit and how we can improve marketing and other industries, not just for our sake, but for the customer’s sake. Secondly, I appreciate doubt. When I was moving back to Mongolia, everyone said “The best thing is to work in American big corporations”. Doing things that I have never done before gives me a lot of energy and all this doubt that nothing good can be done here - I love it - it keeps me functioning even with 4-5 hours of sleep. It is a weird relationship. If people started complimenting, I get comfortable and I sleep in, but if people start asking “Is Tomujin really impactful?”, then I think “Ok, maybe 48 billion is not enough” and I know that we need to do way more.
“I want Tomujin Academy to be parallel to the education of 21st century - alternative ways to learning. In 5 years, we’re talking southeast Asian countries, like Singapore, Hong Kong, Mongolia (obviously), China, Korea, and Philippines. ”
13) You graduated in May 2015 and did you launch Tomujin also in 2015?
I graduated on June 7th. I had come back to Mongolia in January of that year. I launched it with a partner of mine. We’d registered the NGO and planned a summer school.
14) So you had the idea before you graduated?
Yes, I took this course called Entrepreneurship, a non-academic winter course at Williams. We raised about 12,000 USD for a Maker’s Space. The guy who was doing it was a really cool entrepreneur who sold 2 biotechnology companies before, and he was retired. He wanted to help the city of North Adams through entrepreneurship and economic development. He offered me a job. It doesn’t pay that much, but it pays way better than Mongolian salaries obviously. For a moment, I forgot about everything that I wrote in my college essay, and all the AMSA (Association of Mongolian Students in America) meetings that we had, which was all about Mongolia. When a guy like that approached me, I felt flattered and I thought “Why not, let’s stay a year”.
Also, I had a startup with Shannon Shu, a Chinese American, who had also graduated from Williams. It was a ticketing platform like ticket.mn (we had this idea 5 years before these were launched). We worked on our initial plan, and we got our initial seed fund from our college. We were going to work on it during the summer - from Mongolia to Hong Kong and Taiwan. There were three of us as founders, but the 2 founders didn’t want to live in Mongolia and our idea started falling apart. To the job at the incubator, I told him that I was going to leave since my startup failed and I cannot stay a year with him; and I went back home and started working on Tomujin.
15) A common misconception about you, as well as entrepreneurs?
I think this is the biggest thing. With entrepreneurship, you do your own thing, but people mistake it with freedom. I honestly think that doing your own thing is not “freedom” at all. You are honestly less free, you have less time, less everything. Because you have to do everything. At a job, you don’t have to clean, you don’t have to do the accounting, you don’t have to do the legal work, you don’t have to do HR, you don’t have to do anything except your own very tiny scope of job. If you want to be an actual entrepreneur, and start an actual startup, you have to do everything. This is the biggest misconception. You watch these movies and it seems cool and fun, signing things, going to events, and raising funds. You have to really love it, because it’s not always fun. I love doing what I do, so it’s working out alright for me.
Misconceptions about me, I think there’s a lot. I don’t think I’m good at PR. A huge misconception is that I’m a very argumentative angry dude. I can be sometimes, very easily. But I don’t think it’s the default setting of who I am. I could be very sensitive, calm and quiet. A lot of people think that I want to get things done all alone, but I want to be in the background. I want to build the team and the structure. I don’t want to be this Superman. I want to build something that is sustainable, that can operate for decades on its own. The “secret” if I may say, in how I am involved in multiple projects, is that I trust other people and I give other people the authority and ability to do stuff. Yes, at a dinner table, I would be the loudest. But that does not mean that’s how I build, manage, or work with people.
“I didn’t stay in the U.S. because I didn’t feel like I was making a change. That’s when I realized my goal is not a million-dollar deal. I would never write “I raised billion dollars” on my CV. I am not saying that’s bad, but for me personally, I don’t wake up for that. ”
16) Biggest challenge you've faced at work and how did you overcome this obstacle?
The biggest mistake I always make is that I react too quickly, maybe too emotionally. There are moments that I could definitely hold back my emotions and not tell somebody the complete truth, but I sometimes do. I might tell someone that they did a really bad job instead of being quiet. So I think the emotions get the better of me sometimes. But I’m getting better at it from teaching, having two children, learning that it’s not the best way to go. You can’t just tell people the absolute truth.
17) Have your emotional fast reactions benefited you though?
Absolutely. People who have worked with me for longer periods are attracted to that. Some people can’t handle the speed of it. I also can’t handle it sometimes. At a point, it’s not healthy. Because of being too passionate, I get very angry/frustrated for two minutes.
Second is not having any patience. I’m learning now that it takes people certain time to understand things. Even if you understand it instantly, it does not mean other people understand it instantly. It takes months and months for any change to happen. You can’t expect an instant change, so my lack of patience frustrated a lot of people.
I’m involved with so many things so I make these promises. I sometimes forget about it without any malicious intentions, but simply because I’m overcommitted and it frustrates a lot of people. I’m one of those people who promises 10 things and delivers 6. I do think it’s better than promising one thing and doing one though. Taking an extreme calculated risk is not taking risk at all. But I want to improve it and I am. I want to promise 10 things and do 12. Hopefully.
18) Any big regrets?
Business-wise, I rarely regret anything. On people, I have lots of regrets. People problems are the biggest. If you don’t have the right people, your ideas are shit. If you don’t treat your people right, you’re shit. As a young 23 year old, it’s completely obvious that I made bad people decisions. I really believe that people who work for me or with me are a part of my family. I spend way more time with them than with my 2 children and my wife, so I take it really seriously. My regrets are hurting people’s feelings, not helping them, and not being a good leader. This is why I said if you don’t love the process, it’s not fun to be an entrepreneur or a CEO.
19) What are you most proud of?
Again, it’s the people that cross my path, even if they say negative things about me, positive things about me, I know I’ve changed them, I’ve changed their perspective, I’ve changed their ethics, a lot of their characteristics. Sometimes in good ways, sometimes probably in a bad way. That, I’m proud of. I’m not motivated by a paycheck, but I’m motivated by changing people’s perspectives.
Secondly, in only 3 years we have helped hundreds of students achieve one of their biggest dreams of their lives: to get into phenomenal universities. Getting 48 Billion MNT in financial aid for these super interesting cool students is something I’m a little proud of. In 10 years’ time, imagine what that 48 billion would be doing, and how many more billions would they create and invest. I can’t wait.
20) Where do you see your companies in 5 years?
At Tomujin Academy, we want to represent education in southeast Asia. I think Mongolia is known all around the world as a unique boutique country, one. Two, barbaric people who are loud in clubs. That’s it. I want to change that image to be like that of Finland. Education is great in Finland. I want Tomujin Academy to be parallel to the education of 21st century - alternative ways to learning. In 5 years, we’re talking southeast Asian countries, like Singapore, Hong Kong, Mongolia (obviously), China, Korea, and Philippines. Our goal is to enable high achieving students to their fullest potential. It’s not TOEFL, it’s not SAT, it’s not even admission to Harvard. I think we’ve been achieving what we have because our target is there.
“Study social psychology from 1st grade and pass the exam. Universally. Forget English, forget math. I don’t get why we teach math 5 days a week globally. Seriously, what has that done to humanity? ”
PERSONAL
21) Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I’ll be 31 in 5 years, so I want to be calmer. I want to be more patient and more loving. This might sound weird, but really. I want to be like those Zen teachers in movies, or visionary leaders.
22) So what brings you calm?
Training, physical exertion. Since 2018 September, I’ve been training almost every morning. I wake up around 5. Go to gym at 6.30, in for an hour up to 2 hours. I do mostly boxing, and running or biking, mostly cardio work that exert me to the fullest. That’s like the adrenaline. Again, it’s back to sports. I wanted to be a football player. I realized that ever since I was 9, I always exercised, 3 hours almost every day. I realized that exercise kept me in check.
Secondly, my babies! My daughter, who’s a year and 2 months old. My son is 4 years old. Those things are pretty cool. My wife makes me calm, most of the time.
23) One of the hashtags you started using in 2019 was #Grateful. What are you grateful for today?
I’m grateful to be healthy, but mostly I’m grateful for all the people that understand me. I have over 30 people that are working with me. They are dedicating their life to something that I see. That is rare, I think. I’m so grateful to people who believe in me, who keep up with me. I’m super grateful that I can do the things I want to do the way I want to do it and be happy about it. I am super lucky. There are millions of people all over the world just doing things because they think they have to. On the weekends, they have to volunteer or donate money to keep sane, to feel good. So for me to be where I am now and talk to you about this, I consider myself super lucky.
24) Do you have any mentors? How did you pick them as mentors?
I don’t think I picked my mentors. To be honest, I think I’m a very bad mentee. I’m not good with relationships. But the number one person that comes to my mind is Badruun Gardi. He was one of the biggest comforts in coming back. Seeing someone like him be here and be happy and successful was really cool. Badruun is amazingly generous with his network and even if I’m bad at emailing him back, he’s such a big supporter for Tomujin and everything that I do. He’s also doing the things he do because he really wants to. I try to copy that. I want to do something that I really want to do.
I also have my father-in-law Ts. Amaraa as a mentor. He was the CEO of Unitel, a really smart and successful man. I got a lot of amazing advice and guidance from him. Actually almost all of my students and the people I work with are kind of my mentors, because they remind me that I’m too harsh and not so patient. Also my children. I follow a lot of people on Instagram and Facebook - now you can these days.
In real life, those 2 are my mentors. But I am not good at being a mentee, following up, and asking for an advice - I get really shy about it. So I’m very lucky because I have people who are very proactive at being nice to me.
25) Are you a good mentor?
You’d have to ask that from my students. I really hope I am. I’ve been counselling and mentoring over 700 or 800 students now. Directly, at least 400 students. Sometimes, I’m a little harsh, but I take being a mentor very seriously. I interact with my students almost as if they’re my friends. I think I’m a decent mentor. With age, I will definitely improve.
26) What’s the best life advice that you’ve received? Who gave this advice?
There are few I’d like to mention:
“If you’ve taken more than you’ve given, then your life was probably meaningless.” by Will Smith (maybe?) not directly to me, but I took this quote to my heart.
“Always underpromise and overdeliver.” Again not directly said to me, but I always try to do that.
“People live by selling their value. Your value increases by how many promises you’ve kept and how many people’s lives you’ve changed, how much impact you’ve made, and how much meaningful stuff you’ve done.” by my father-in-law.
I see all these bankers who say they’ve raised a million dollars, but you have to ask them how many people’s lives they’ve changed. Zero, except probably yours and your boss’. You have to bring value, and then people will want to partner and work with you.
27) A personal advice you would like to extend to fellow Hobby Alumni?
I’ll say 2 things. I don’t know if I’m the guy to give advice to anybody but I do to students, every day. So I’ll try here.
Firstly, do not judge people by what other people say about them. I hate that. I think it’s such a thing that doesn’t even change with an ivy league education. You know what’s funny? Some people would read a book or listen to a professor’s speech and they would say “I don’t really buy your theory”. Then you hear your friend badmouth about someone and they would just believe them without giving that other person a chance. I personally would advise Hobby alumni to not be that guy or girl who believes in labels. Labels are shit. It’s not black and white. It’s gray. You have to know what kind of gray it is. The reason I say this is that, the closer we are and the better connection we have with each other, it’s better for everybody. So remove that commentary/gossip/sly-comments.
Secondly, always see an opportunity to collaborate. There’s another thing that good education doesn’t erase. People are hyper competitive in such meaningless things, like education for instance. I’m a member of certain associations which are supposed to help me, but actually compete with me. Ridiculous. Maybe even my alma mater, maybe even Hobby School sees Tomujin Academy as a competitor. So it’s the inability to see cooperation and desire to always see competition. Seriously, like enabling high potential students to reach their full potential is such a large task that in no way, that only we will achieve it. So partnership is the way to go. Happiness, fulfillment is the same.
“Most Mongolian students don’t get rejected that much. Because most professors would think “Wow, a Mongolian student! Let’s keep the Mongolian and kick the Boston kid out. There are too many Boston kids”. In general, a lot of people are interested to talk to us. Why? Because we’re Mongolian and there are very few Mongolians. Same if you apply to masters program. Why did you get accepted? You’re Mongolian. ”
28) What are your good and bad habits?
Bad habits, I tend to overcommit. I’m having my really close friends say “not another idea, not another organization, don’t do new things, stick with what you do, stop...” Because I’m like, “Oh my god, we could do this!”. I tend to think I have more than 24 hours. Very bad habit. Second is my face. I’m not good at hiding my emotions. When somebody says something stupid, I visibly show it. And I think that bothers a lot of people, frustrates some.
Good habit is that it doesn’t take too long to change my opinion. I think this is another misconception. If you make good logic, I’ll change within 5 seconds, and in the sixth second, I’ll be arguing for that newfound belief, even if I had believed it for 20 or hundreds of years. I can change very quickly, Also, I wake up really early. I wake up at 5 am and I’m trying to change that to 4:30 am. Maybe even 4 am. Waking up early helps you get things done.
29) Funniest story at work you can share with us?
When we were starting, Tomujin was very different - we were running a summer program and a lot of test prep courses. It was kind of like a test prep center, with SAT and TOEFL courses. I really don’t like this TOEFL system where you get divided into levels and pay for each. It’s a business scheme. You don’t learn language like that. So I wanted to do a 10-day TOEFL course. It was 10 days in total, 30 hours course. It was exactly 10 days before the TOEFL exam. We launched the program and it was very cheap compared to others. Others priced theirs at 900,000 or 1 million MNT and we offered it for 139,000 MNT. At that time, a lot of people used to go to the center and sign up on a paper. So I opened up a Jotform, and we had over 70, 80 people sign up. And I was like Yes! Our class size was 50 though, so it was an over-enroll. Goals! On the first day, only one person showed up. From there, we understood that online forms didn’t mean anything and you need a down payment and advancement of at least 5,000 MNT. Looking back now, this was really funny.
At UB Passport, we went around bars and coffee shops with our offer. We wanted to sell 500,000 passports that connect over 100 places in Ulaanbaatar. We thought we were going to do this for 2 months. It was a fun summer project and we were going to leave it there. It has been almost 3 years and we’re nowhere closer to this number. In Ulaanbaatar, we have 3,000 people who purchased UB Passport now. It is an impressive number though, but back when we started, I wanted to sell 300,000 to 500,000. Kind of ridiculous and funny. Funny how I thought I could’ve done all of that in just 2 months.
30) If you can pass 1 law globally, what would it be?
Study social psychology from 1st grade and pass the exam. Universally. Forget English, forget math. I don’t get why we teach math 5 days a week globally. Seriously, what has that done to humanity? Very small. If everybody learned how the human brain works, such as what is ego, what is desire, sadness, happiness etc. I think far less arguments would happen. You would think, “Oh, what I’m seeing is just my perspective. It’s not the truth”. A lot of bickering and arguments would go away. Mathematicians, they don’t see it that way. Stereotypically.
31) Now if you can fix 1 problem in Mongolia, what would it be?
The inability to read critically. Mongolia has a high literacy rate - yes, but what I mean by that is that, when you see a poster, it says our graduates went to a U.S.A college. Their achievement is like, we sent 30 kids to the U.S. I wish people would read and ask “Where in the U.S.?” That’s the ability to critically read.
32) If you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive who would it be?
My grandfather on my mother’s side. Actually on my dad’s side too. They’re both really cool. I’ve never met them though. One is called Ochir Ayush who was a general and the other was Bazarragchaa Balbar who was the first CEO of the first private bank “Mongol Daatgal” from 1964-1977 (it is an insurance company now, but it was a private bank back then). Mongolia didn’t have private things. He wrote a book about capitalism in a communist regime. He loved sports, he loved Mongolian wrestling, and wrote books on it. It’s very fitting, because I love sports and I love to teach. From what I hear, he was a teacher at the age of 13 and he was very smart and a very long-term guy. I remember my mom telling me that when I was born, he was talking about my college tuition, telling her to start saving. Just seems like a very smart person who likes to do meaningful, impactful things, that I have now subconsciously gotten from him. The fact that I love teaching is maybe because of that. I would like to have dinner with him and ask him what he thinks about Tomujin Academy. Does he think it’s worth it - to be here, sometimes getting called ridiculous names by people, working extreme hours, not that big of a financial gain, a huge emotional gain - and get his thoughts on it.
Second, I would want to have with Leonardo DiCaprio.
33) Do you consider yourself privileged?
Yes, Mongolia is such a unique factor into everything we got. Let’s list these things down. Getting into college, one. Classes, you have to apply to classes. If it’s over-enrolled you get rejected. Most Mongolian students I don’t think get rejected that much. Because most professors would think “Wow, a Mongolian student! Let’s keep the Mongolian boy/girl and kick the Boston kid out. There are too many Boston kids”. In general, a lot of people are interested to talk to us. Why? Because we’re Mongolian and there are very few Mongolians. Same if you apply to masters program. Why did you get accepted? You’re Mongolian. So this itself is one by default.
The second is that I went to a private school all my life. How can I complain? In England, I went to a public school but it’s almost like ISU (International School of Ulaanbaatar) here. Privilege on privilege on privilege.
34) Which 3 books influenced your life the most?
In high school, “Harry Potter” by J.K.Rowling. It didn’t influence me in terms of character, but it was the first book that I picked up. I was not a big book reader back then, although I am now. The reason I think it influenced my life is that it helped Bilguun and I become friends.
“Built to Last” by Jim Collins, a Stanford business professor. Amazing book. It’s all about building something that’s sustainable and long term. Something that lasts for generations to generations. I love that.
The third one is “Build Something That Matters” by Blake Mycoskie. He started TOMS, the one for one shoe company. I read it my sophomore year in winter. I fell in love with it. Everything I do now is based on that book. Very easy, 200 page book. Nothing dense but talks about big corporations, social enterprises, businesses that are built to help societal problems. It’s not some corporate social responsibility that you donate. You make a lot of money and you’re making a lot of changes. I was like wow.
Because here’s the thing. I didn’t stay in the U.S., because I didn’t feel like I was making a change. That’s when I realized my goal is not a million-dollar deal. I would never write “I raised billion dollars” on my CV. I am not saying that’s bad, but for me personally, I don’t wake up for that. But I’m not stupid. I’m not of those people that think money doesn’t matter. I know money matters. I grew up in a family where money wasn’t abundant. Money was rare. So I was very conscious of money.
So my number one goal is being meaningful, making a change, and being important to whatever society I’m in, also being sustainable. Second is: “if you can’t feed yourself, if you can’t be financially stable, then you’re dead”. For example, that’s where Tomujin Academy comes in. Tomujin has a Robin Hood model. We don’t beg people to donate money. That’s why we’re very sustainable and constant. It’s not dependent on people donating money. Our model is that we only accept good students.
I live by this book.
35) Who would you recommend to interview next from Hobby Alumni?
My mentor Badruun Gardi, Hobby Alumnus 2005. He went to Stanford University and worked as an Executive Director at Zorig Foundation; and he founded GerHub, a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated to finding uncommon solutions to common problems in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. He’s a phenomenal person who enables and connects people.
“I have over 30 people that are working with me. They are dedicating their life to something that I see... I’m so grateful to people who believe in me and keep up with me. I’m super grateful that I can do the things I want to do the way I want to do it and be happy about it. I’m super lucky.”