Pratham Mittal, founder of Tetr College of Business: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Pratham Mittal (LinkedIn), founder of Tetr College of Business. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

My name is Pratham Mittal. I’m in education, and we are trying to change the way education is delivered across colleges, beyond exams, lectures, slide decks, grades, and attendance books. Students actually learn by doing. Whether it's business or engineering, they build real businesses, and their grades come from their revenues, net income, margins, NPS, and other real-world metrics.

As I was going through college, it never made sense to me that students were confined to the four walls of a classroom. I think education should be about exploration, about travel, about making mistakes. I wanted to create a program where all of these ideals can be fulfilled, where there's more exposure than syllabus, more travel than cramming. That’s really the genesis of the program. That’s also how I study — by doing, by traveling, by making mistakes — and I think the future of education belongs to that model.

When selecting students, we essentially look for a student who has a DNA of curiosity — someone always looking to learn more. If someone has that, we can look past grades or English proficiency. It’s more about whether they’re willing to get their hands dirty, ask questions, listen well, and go the extra mile to satiate their curiosity. If students are happy, satisfied, fulfilled, and if they carry an innate sense of curiosity, I think their path in life will be a lot more fun and fulfilling.

We launched our first semester in Dubai because, frankly, Dubai is the new center of the world. A global program that travels through seven countries ought to start there. You get a flavor of the entire world while being in one place — a good warm-up before starting your global tour. Plus, the ease of doing business here, meeting very different kinds of people, the safety and security it brings, and the government is very welcoming. All of these reasons made Dubai a natural first step for us.

I'd divide my day-to-day responsibilities into three parts. About 30% of my time goes into talking to students: understanding how they’re liking the program, their feedback and the challenges that they’re facing, and helping them mentally when they need a supporting hand. Another 30% is spent hiring and building the team: interviewing, onboarding, and keeping the team excited for the vision. The remaining 40% goes into institution-building: building processes, systems, culture, and campuses across Dubai, Singapore, Ghana, Rio, and New York, as well as building alliances with schools like Cornell and Illinois Tech. The goal is for this organization to stand the test of time.

Managing the global nature of Tetr is tough. You need a team that’s fully aligned with the vision and ready to work really hard to make it happen. There’s no silver bullet other than putting in the hours that you need to get something like this off the ground, being agile, and listening to student feedback to adjust yourself accordingly.

A great habit for staying focused is having your long-term goal very clearly written out and in front of you at all times. That reminds you not to stray from it. I also note down everything that comes to my mind to keep my mind off the clutter, and I recommend it to my students, too.

In the morning, I wake up around 8am, try to get a game of some sport in, and then head to the office to start the grind. I usually go until 8 or 9pm, and then spend some time with family. I'm not married yet, so I have a bit more time on my hands.

[My long-term goal is for us] to become a top 10 ranked institution globally, right next to Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, Yale, MIT Sloan, London Business School, and Northwestern University.

My personal goals are very well aligned with the institution’s goals at this point. To be honest, we’re at the early stages, so there’s no work-life balance. Maybe once I get married and have children, then I’ll start thinking about balance. But for now, the focus is on building.

Artificial intelligence is touching every industry, and for good reason. I think it needs to be integrated and inculcated into every course we teach and every business a student builds. Down the line — maybe five to ten years from now — we’ll have AI tutors who will be doing a much better job than traditional teachers, and that will change the face of education forever. That’s something we’re spending a lot of our energy on, and will be the biggest disruption, I believe.

Adolescence is a great show that made me think about the education system from the ground up. Other than that, old movies like Dead Poets Society, newer podcasts like Lex Friedman’s, and TED Talks from people like Scott Galloway have been a huge influence. I think it’s specific episodes or pieces of content rather than one creator or channel that really shapes your thinking for the long term.

The best advice I’ve received is to always double-check other people’s work. While trust is important, too much of it can weaken the organization. It's a very counterintuitive insight, but I really believe that it holds true. Your feet need to be on the ground even while you have your eyes toward the sky — think big and long-term, but remain meticulous in the way you work.

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