Team building is the process of causing a group of people to work together effectively as a team, especially by means of activities and events designed to increase motivation and promote cooperation. On their first day students will have the chance to have fun while cooperating to win a competition. This module also sheds light about the day-to-day dynamics and what students are expected to achieve by the end of the program.

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is both the capacity to accurately understand, feel and manage your own emotions; and the ability to sense and understand others’ emotions, and get along with them. An emotionally intelligent individual tends to be more relaxed, content, and enthusiastic than the majority of people. Emotionally intelligent people are socially skilled and, therefore, they enjoy healthier relationships. They are also both more persuasive and better leaders.

Our students will practice the five elements of EI: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

Positive psychology

Positive psychology is the scientific study of happiness. An instrument that helps to educate individuals who may be floundering in knowing where to maximize their efforts to enhance well-being and live a full life. Studies show that those with education in this field report higher overall happiness and life satisfaction, and lower depressive symptoms and stress. There are also gains in self-actualization, well-being, optimism, hopefulness, and purpose in life.

Our module will work on the five measurable elements that count towards achieving a higher well-being: Positive emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Achievement.

Personal effectiveness

To achieve our goals, we need to be effective. How we organize our responsibilities, goals, and routines to complete the tasks that matter most is a key skill to a fulfilling life. Our students will learn a state-of-the-art personal productivity system that helps them prioritize what’s critical to their success while enjoying a good work-life balance.

Dynamic learning and effective study

We only know what we have learnt. Thus, if we learn to become effective learners, we can learn much more in less time. Learning can be fun, easy and effective. This module presents leading edge methods and techniques that improve the ability to learn in a variety of areas. A wealth of information and activities to make the most, not only of the Master courses, but of our lives.

Modeling excellence

Modeling is the process of recreating and replicating excellence. We can model any human behavior by mastering the beliefs, the physiology and the specific thought processes that underlie the skill or behavior we want to master.

By observing, modeling, and replicating the way others achieve results, we can attain higher levels of performance.

Speed reading

During our lives, we spend thousands of hours reading. Doubling or tripling the speed at which we do it, can help us both save time for other things and multiply our ability to acquire knowledge. Speed reading is the process of rapidly recognizing and absorbing phrases or sentences rather than identifying individual words. Students will learn a process that allows us to understand words quicker than we can pronounce them. They will improve not only the speed at which they read, but also their comprehension and concentration.

Memorization techniques

Memorizing helps us better furnish our minds with the treasures of knowledge and wisdom. It helps us connect dots and reach “ahá moments». It improves our expertise and makes us better talkers. It enhances our social skills (even if only because we remember more names).

Students who use memory tricks perform better than those who do not. Memory tricks help us expand our working memory and access long term memory. These techniques can also enable us to remember some concepts for years or even for life. Finally, memory tricks lead to a higher order thinking.

Communication skills and persuasion

Persuasive communicators master how to present information and conduct a dialogue with intelligence, so that their interlocutors like the options they present.

People cannot help but to influence the people around them. As parents, friends, bosses or partners we are influencing the decisions made by those around us. Elegant persuasion will favor that our people choose the best paths, and that can do much good in both their and our lives. In this course, students will learn techniques, strategies, and tricks to become a more popular, credible and influential person.

Negotiation skills

In life we do not get what we deserve, but what we achieve in a negotiation. Our salary, the price of our new house or the destination for the next holidays are results of our negotiation skills. Negotiation is a strategic discussion that resolves an issue in a way that both parties find acceptable.

Students will learn to investigate and prepare their options; determine the minimum agreement which is ultimately better than no agreement at all; practice presenting their arguments; learn to bargain; and find out the best ways to close deals. This module includes theory and many practices, both in one to one and group negotiations.

Acting and Improvisation

Acting allows us to both adopt the personality of a character that is way different from us and live somebody else’s life. Acting makes us better communicators and public speakers, increases memorization, improves our confidence, builds a team, makes us familiar with improvisation and increases empathy.

Students will learn basic acting skills like understanding and interpreting scripts, developing characters and conveying emotion, projecting the voice and pronouncing for an audience or improvising when something goes wrong, and adjusting to unexpected situations.

Creative thinking

Human creativity has been essential to survive and thrive as a species. It has enriched our lives throughout the arts, has extended our lifespan and has made living conditions more comfortable. In this course we will cover the definition of creativity, the nature of the creative process, the creative personality and the enhancement of creativity.

Every student will be asked to create something, be it a business plan, a course, a piece of art, writing a book or any other idea they propose.

Critical thinking and some philosophy

Life is about making choices, whilst choices are the result of judging and concluding. A good life is thus the result of making good judgments and reaching the right conclusions. Critical thinking is the process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing and/or synthesizing information as a guide to belief and action. Observation, experience, reflection, and reasoning are the sources of the knowledge we will be working with.

Students will be asked to observe and analyze different situations, then infer and conclude what options can better solve the problem and, finally, present their rationale to an audience.

Investor’s psychology and financial planning

Having a rich mindset is the foundation of lasting wealth. We believe that the major part of financial success is psychology and the minor part is mechanics. The first step is becoming familiar with the basic principles of saving and investing, and the “magic” of compound interest. The second one is to be aware of how systematic investing creates wealth in the long term. We will cover the two main approaches to investing, the Momentum Model (dealer’s mindset) and the Buy & Hold Model (owner’s mindset) and students will learn the characteristics of different types of investment assets.

For this course students will be asked to work on personal/family budgeting and design their own long term financial plan.

Entrepreneurship and private equity

Entrepreneurship is the process of imagining, developing, organizing, and running a new business. Every business we know was once a start-up. Setting up a new business is very risky, and most entrepreneurs fail. That is why our students will learn both the causes of success and failure. To start a new business requires to comply with certain legal steps and regulate the partners relationship. In this module we will also: pay attention to which elements determine the potential profitability of a business; analyze the cost structure of most industries through a P&L account; draw a business plan; examine the main challenges involved in executing a plan; and learn how to create a profitable business.

Private equity investing is buying a stake of an existing company expecting to make profits by both the increase in its value and the yearly dividends. The logics of entrepreneurship apply to this kind of investment, but here the key is to be wise at assessing the fair value of a company when you buy the stake. Students will be asked to assess the feasibility of some business ideas that they will be presented with and infer the fair value of a company.

Real Estate Investment

Real estate investing involves the purchase, management and sale or rental of a property for profit. Returns from real estate come traditionally in two different forms: monthly rentals and long-term appreciation. In this course students will learn: how to value a piece of property; strategies to add value to a property;  why debt leverage is a key driver of profitability; what are the different types of property: residential, commercial, hospitality, logistics,… and how the dynamics of each of them affects the investor;  regulations and taxation; to write the most common type of contracts: rentals and earnest money; and basic land development concepts.

Students will be asked to assess different real estate opportunities and explain why they think they are either sensitive investments or not.

Financial Markets

Financial markets refer broadly to any marketplace where the trading of securities occurs. There are many kinds of financial markets; the main four are money, currencies, stock, and bond markets. We will focus on the market that may better help our students achieve financial independence: stock markets. At the end of this course our students will be familiar with: what is an index and how passive investing refers to them; the history of financial bubbles and crisis; the concept of value and growth investing; the commissions they better avoid; what is an ETF’S and a mutual fund; the difference between technical and fundamental analysis; and  understanding financial information.

Students will be asked to read financial statements of different companies and consider the nature and strategy of each company, assessing whether buying their stock at current prices is a sound idea. 

Nutrition and cooking

People with healthy eating patterns live longer, maintain a healthy body weight and are at lower risk for serious health problems such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes. In contrast, poor nutrition is associated with mental issues like dementia, depression and ADHD, while obesity is associated with smaller brain capacity and less brain activity.

But we love eating tasty food, and tasty food is not always healthy. That is why this course covers not only what foods are more nutritious and healthier but, specially, how to prepare meals that you love to eat. Visits to markets and supermarkets are part of the deal, the better you buy the better you eat.

Mind-body exercise

Regular physical activity is a foundation to a healthy lifestyle. Physical activity affects the mind, body, behavior and health.  Strong evidence suggests that exercise is not only good for the body but also for the mind. Research shows that exercise puts the neurochemistry that enhances mood and mental functioning at work, facilitating the release of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, and thus improving attention, mood and cognitive functions.

Exercising alone is an extraordinary help, but activities that involve both exercise and character development (e.g., traditional martial arts) or activities that involve both exercise and mindfulness (e.g., yoga) have proved to be even more efficient at improving executive functions, inhibitory control, working memory and mental flexibility.

Our program includes 90-minute physical activities that include personal defense techniques, functional training, stretching, yoga, pilates and group exercise.

Career Success

Our world presents plenty of career opportunities. The more choices you have, the more doubts may arise. It is not only about what profession to choose, but also about how to develop it. To be a skill-based employee is only an option; you can decide to be a freelance or an entrepreneur. You can also work part-time, be a digital nomad or a remote worker. You can combine working for others while creating your own business or your investment portfolio. Career choices are also about your lifestyle.

In this course students apply their critical thinking skills to both what makes a life worth living and personal finances. They need to be aware that the career decisions they make will determine the life they live.

Additionally, they will learn how to make a winning CV and effective cover letters; optimize their LinkedIn Profile; how to ace aptitude tests and recruitment games; and how to do a great job interview.

Coaching and Tutoring

A life coach is assigned to every student in order to help them master an auto-coaching tool designed to unleash their potential and find their purpose in life. Coaches will also accompany the participants providing guidance during this experience.

Group tutoring classes will also take place during the year to keep track of the learning path and the course of the Master, providing guidance onto their next career steps.

The Final Master’s Project consists of an individual monographic work through which each student must demonstrate their ability to skillfully deal with the following aspects:

• Present a problem or an innovation, or research project on one of the topics studied during the course
• Develop an investigation around a problem and propose the relevant working hypotheses in order to draw relevant empirical/theoretical conclusions
• Apply the baggage of knowledge and skills acquired throughout the other modules of the master’s degree

By the end of the first term, students will pick a topic for their final Master’s Project. The project assessment will include an oral presentation where students will discuss and ‘defend’ their work. Their work will be evaluated by a panel made up of Final Master’s Project directors appointed based on the proposal of the teaching staff of each of the specialties in front of which the student will present the work carried out.

The objective of the Final Master’s Project is to allow students to show their ability to integrate the knowledge and experiences lived throughout the Master, as well as to show mastery of the skills required to obtain the master’s degree in Personal Excellence and Self-Leadership.