Gordon Swaby: The Power of Follow Through

Many Jamaicans have circled Monday, September 1 on their calendars, and not because it’s the first day of the month. It’s the day school starts, after the long summer holidays that began in July. It’s not an easy time of year. Parents, teachers – and most of all the students – are in a state of growing nervous tension. The stores are full of anxious mothers trying to find the best deals in school bags, pens, pencils, exercise books. The stress level in bookstores is particularly high; parents make notes on the lists in their hands, comparing text book prices. Street vendors are making a big sales push in downtown Kingston, spreading their goods on the sidewalk; some are chased away by the police. Times are hard; people are trying to make ends meet.

One young man who has seized on the importance of education for Jamaica is Gordon Swaby. And this is the first  (and probably not the last) time I will mention his youth. But just to emphasize, he is young – not yet 24 years old. Through his online social learning platform, EduFocal, Gordon focuses on making learning fun. Good Lord – he has even made examination preparation fun, if you can imagine that!  Students working towards the dreaded GSAT and CXC exams register on the EduFocal website for a low annual fee. Once logged in, they do not simply take tests that reinforce what they have learned in school. The EduFocal system is much more than that. It is modeled on what Gordon calls “gamification.” There, I’ve learnt a new word. It’s not only interactive, with input available from peers and teachers; it also progresses like a video game. And you know how addictive those are. There is always an incentive to go on to the next level, and rewards in the form of sponsored prizes. Students can also track their progress, and there is a leader board competition, too. That’s gamification.

EduFocal Awards 2013: Shamique Francis, the winner in the Grade Six Achievement Test category, accepts her prizes from Julian Robinson (left), minister of state in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, and Peter Levy (right), managing director of British Caribbean Insurance Company. Sharing in the moment is Gordon Swaby, CEO, EduFocal. (Photo: Naphtali Junior/Jamaica Observer)

It was video games that got him started, Gordon tells me. As a fifteen-year-old high school student he built Advance-Gamers, a video gaming resource website. I wasn’t going to mention his youth again, was I, but Gordon laughingly calls that period his “younger days.” He adds: “I started Advance-Gamers because I liked playing video games, but my parents refused to buy them for me. So I started the website, and when it got big enough I wrote video game publishers who would send me the games to review and keep.” He then began to develop the EduFocal concept with his older cousin in 2011. “He was doing his Masters at the time and didn’t have much time to contribute so I toiled along alone,” says Gordon.That year was intense. EduFocal was launched on March 15, 2012 at Kingston’s Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. 

The center of the town of Christiana, Gordon’s home town.

Gordon grew up in the small farming town of Christiana, in Manchester’s cool hills. He attended Holmwood Technical High School. Who or what inspired him as a boy, I asked him? “I was influenced by many things and people growing up,” Gordon responds. “My parents, brothers, TV shows, cartoons and friends…But if I had to choose I would say that my parents [Lloyd and Olivene Swaby] had and continue to have the biggest influence on me. They’re both entrepreneurs.”  At EduFocal, he also recognizes his supportive board of directors: Peter Levy (chairman), Lloyd Swaby, Grace Lindo, Maxwell Jardim, JJ Geewax and Renee Rattray. “Outside of my board, I have to thank others who have contributed to the continued growth of the company, EduFocal’s lead developer Paul Allen and Shane Shipston,” says Gordon.

He describes himself as being “an average student” at Holmwood. He says he learned to read and write “very late” – after which English became his favorite subject. In fact, he has been blogging since the age of fifteen (read his blog at gordonswaby.com) – a veteran! Gordon chuckles at his teenage blog posts. “Some of them I imagine are very embarrassing,” he says. Clearly he doesn’t look back at them often, although he does say he has a tendency to “introspect.” Nevertheless, I suspect he mainly keeps moving forward.

I am curious as to what drives Gordon. He says he is good at strategizing and negotiating – but confesses to being “a chronic procrastinator…I’m surprised when I get anything done.” I find this hard to believe – he has been moving along at such a snappy pace. Gordon insists: “I have a bad habit of waiting until the last minute to get stuff done. This has been something I’ve struggled with since I was a child. I would wait until the last minute to pack for a trip, do my homework etc. But with that said, I usually am a man of my word. I’m very persistent and I love to follow through.” Gordon places a great deal of value on follow-through, and I agree with him that it’s something many people in and outside business don’t take seriously. “I think I’d credit that for me getting so far so fast in my short time on this earth,” Gordon stresses.

Gordon Swaby. (Photo: Gleaner)

Gordon’s spirit of enterprise has been recognized. Soon after the launch of EduFocal, he was selected as one of twenty up-and-coming businesspeople to be provided with skills training and mentorship at the Montego Bay-based Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship. That same year, he won one of the Jamaica Gleaner Fifty Under Fifty awards for business leadership. Earlier this year, the Inter-American Development Bank named Gordon as one of ten Young Innovators for Latin America and the Caribbean. He was off to Bahia, Brazil, where he was invited to meet with the IDB’s board of governors. Judging from his enthusiastic tweets, it was an exciting experience for the Jamaican entrepreneur. He has also been spotted at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva very recently. Why? He is the Founding Curator of the Kingston hub of the WEF’s Global Shapers Community. Oh, he is also a winner of The Governor General’s Youth Achievement Award and the Commonwealth Youth Award in Development.

Another award which I did not mention: Gordon receives the Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the University of Technology in Jamaica.

It would be almost impossible to pick Gordon out from this amazing group of 310 Curators of  at the World Economic Forum earlier this month.

I asked Gordon about his vision for the future. In five years’ time, perhaps, when he would have reached the lofty age of 29. He hopes EduFocal will have gone public by then, and he would have moved into the position of chairman. But of course he won’t sit still. “I am passionate about startups and will likely consult and invest in other startups.”

Gordon feels passionately about entrepreneurship. I asked him if there could, perhaps, be too many entrepreneurs in Jamaica. “Definitely not!” he retorts. “Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of any economy. You can’t have too many. I think informal entrepreneurship thrives in Jamaica. People turn to entrepreneurship out of a need to to take care of themselves and their families. I hope we can move from informal to formal entrepreneurship soon; Jamaica will be better off for it.” 

And Gordon is happy with the way things are going for EduFocal. “We’re about to expand into Trinidad and Tobago and I’m very excited about that. We’ve also partnered with First Global Bank for a project that we will be launching in September. We are also expanding into SAT test prep via a partnership with Versan Educational Services.”

George Henry (left), principal of Spalding High School, greets Gordon Swaby, CEO of EduFocal, as Dean of Discipline Yvonne McLeod-Myrie looks on. Gordon was at the school to give a motivational speech to students. (Photo: Dave Lindo/Gleaner)

A serious final question. How does Gordon see the future of education in Jamaica? He has concerns. “The world is changing fast. The way things are going, Jamaica will be far behind the rest of the world in the next twenty to thirty years. Education should create thinkers, thinkers who will be placed in jobs that have not been created yet. I would hope that the future of education in Jamaica reflects this.”  I would hope so too. One of those quantum leaps is required.

And a final reminder from Mr. Swaby: Don’t forget to follow through.

Gordon Swaby’s easy smile.