"When a student leaves Marty’s classroom at the end of the semester, there are two things he can be certain of..." After stepping down as CEO at AVI, Marty had a void. For so many years, Marty spent day after day trying to help his employees be successful. He enjoyed acting as a mentor and coach. This led to Marty returning to the University of Florida as a guest lecturer over 10 years ago. For the past four years, Marty has been teaching courses at the University of Florida. What he loved most about his job was the impact he was able to have on those around him, and what he loves most now is that he gets to continue having that impact on the next generation. Marty’s number one rule in the classroom is, if a student ever questions whether they would use the information taught in his course when they leave the University, they must raise their hand and ask. Marty begins every semester telling the students that he wants this one course to be the most valuable course you enroll in at the University.
Marty’s influence goes further than the classroom, Marty acts as a teacher, mentor, coach, and friend to students in order to prepare them to go out into the world and be successful. Currently, Marty is teaching Entrepreneurial Postmortem, a course designed to teach students invaluable lessons about what factors contribute to the success and failures of some of the world’s greatest companies. Rather than studying a textbook and taking a test, Marty encourages his students to interview real companies to analyze the factors that make the company great. Even further, Marty brings guest speakers into his course for students to ask questions and learn from as many wise and successful entrepreneurs as possible. When a student leaves Marty’s classroom at the end of the semester, there are two things he can be certain of: he provided them with confidence in themselves and their abilities AND empowered them to become the best leaders they can be. #MartySchaffel #LearnEarnReturn