Mike: The Professor Outside The Classroom

This blog is about Professor Mike Koziol, my instructor of Business Ethics classes at the University Canada West (UCW). I don’t know why I chose him for that class. But I think there are three reasons behind it;

First, he had a good rating in ‘Rate My Professor’; based on 41 ratings, he had a 4.9 rating, and the most important is that 100% of his previous students claimed to take classes from Mike again. It was a convincing one.

Second, his profile. It says he is a lawyer, MBA, former fraud investigator, and business consultant. All these designations are standard, but what is a fraud investigator? I was curious, so I took his class, hoping to learn more about it.

Third, he is the Professor outside the classroom. What does that even mean?

My idea of Professor from Hollywood movies is that they are older folks who wear coats, pants, and ties. But my encounter with Mike was different; he looked like a regular guy.

The critical and unique thing about him is that his knowledge and wisdom are not caged in the four walls of the classroom. Most of the time, we attend classes from the Professor for one term, and after that, they fade away, and we might never learn from them again. But that’s not the case with Mike.

I knew more about Mike than my classmates from LinkedIn, yes, LinkedIn. At first, I sent the connection request to him even before attending his classes, but he didn’t accept it. When the class started, I withdrew the send request and tried to send it again, hoping that he might accept it this time. But the problem is that once you remove the request from LinkedIn, you are not allowed to send the request again for three weeks. I was scared at first that I might not get connected with him or my term might end without getting associated with him. But it didn’t happen so.

I have never seen my teacher, even my friends, or anyone in my circle who is that consistent about creating something valuable and sharing it consistently with the people so they can learn from him for free. His LinkedIn posts are a total of wisdom about starting a business, being a solopreneur, and productivity.

Later, I subscribed to his newsletter as well, and yes, it is free, too. And it’s another art which is full of wisdom and knowledge. You might wonder if reading this stuff is boring, but his words and presentation hook your attention, and the knowledge sticks with you.

A few days back, one of my friends from the class shared that the two-hour theoretical class lecture should have been dull, but he is different. Things are the same with his newsletter and the content he is sharing. I bet you won’t regret it.

Why am I writing this? I don’t know why, but I just wanted to. Some might have been assuming it’s for grades; first, I don’t know whether he will even read this blog. The second is I was the batch topper of my batch back and a university second topper of my batch in the seventh semester with a 3.99 GPA, so I know other ways to get good grades than buttering the professor.

Well, that’s my reflection. Thank you for reading. Thank you, Mike, for being the excellent Guru (Sanskrit: “venerable”) in Hinduism, a personal spiritual teacher or guide.