Notes from Chris

Episode 133

Growing up, Shirag Shemmassian did not have it easy. Around the age of 8, he started exhibiting the symptoms of Tourette syndrome, and leading up to being formally diagnosed, Shirag was mocked by his peers. This teasing, however, was not as tough for him as the lack of understanding and acceptance he experienced as a result of his condition—from his peers, as well as from his own Armenian family.

Though at the time Shirag didn’t fully understand the effects the condition would have on his life, he knew it would significantly shape his future goals. And it did.

Despite the early challenges, Shirag went on to achieve significant success: he studied human development at Cornell and attained a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from UCLA. He was also able to graduate from both schools completely debt free. Now, he works as a clinical research psychologist, developing tests used to assess children for mental health conditions.

Out of this success, his side hustle developed organically. About nine years ago, his friends and family starting noticing his track record of getting accepted to and receiving funding from great schools, so they began to ask him for help with their own applications. He obliged, assisting them free of charge.

Then, those he had helped achieved similar results of getting into their dream schools, and they started telling others, who also requested Shirag’s services. With more and more people knocking at his door, Shirag eventually decided to make the side hustle official—launching Shemmassian Academic Consulting in 2013.

So far, Shirag and his team have supported more than 200 students through 1-on-1 support and online courses, and he's earning around $74,000 annually on the side. And their track record is impressive. For college, 90% of students have gotten into at least one of their top three colleges, and for med school, over 90% have gotten into at least one US medical school. Talk about acing it!

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Shemmassian Academic Consulting: Learn more about Shirag's academic consulting service on his website
• Zero to Launch: The online course that Shirag used to up his business savvy and launch his website. Ramit Sethi is actually a friend of mine, and his course rocks!

SEE ALSO:

• Waldorf Teacher Designs Curriculum for Other Educators: How a teacher uses what she knows to help other teachers save time and teach more effectively
• College Lecturer Makes Money by Helping Other Instructors Teach Better: How a woman who uses skills she learned in her day job as a college lecturer to instruct other teachers how to be more successful in the classroom
• Father of 9 Starts “Uber for Tutoring” Hustle: After being frustrated in his search for the right tutors for his many children, a busy father creates a directory that has generated more than 100,000 user profiles

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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