Elio D’Anna at the European School of Economics: "The New Education: from instruction to Self-Knowledge"

A disruptive gathering recently brought together professors, students, and businessmen from Club Raheem to debate the end of traditional teaching, the illusion of the outside world, and the arrival of “creative leisure.”

In an event that challenged all contemporary academic and social foundations, Elio D’Anna, founder and president of the European School of Economics (ESE), presented his radical vision for the future of learning and human development.

Under the title “The New Education: from instruction to Self-Knowledge,” the gathering witnessed a speech that dismantled the very notion of what it means to “learn” and “work.” Through a journey of his own experience—from his past as a rock star to his role as a successful entrepreneur—D’Anna proposed a paradigm shift that lies at the core of our private university: external success is nothing more than an exact reflection of the individual’s inner state.

The “Crime” of Traditional Education

For D’Anna, the current educational system is not only obsolete but detrimental. He harshly criticized the practice of “instilling” knowledge, arguing that traditional academic institutions are extinguishing the inherent creativity of new generations and turning young people into “adulterated adults.”

“Any external knowledge that schools and universities try to instill in you is nonsense. Because instilling something into a human being, from my point of view, is a crime. […] The word education comes from the Latin ‘exduco’, which means to draw out, to extract; it does not mean to instill. Each of you has an incredible treasure inside.”

The founder predicts that in a couple of decades, universities as we know them will disappear. In their place—and already visible within the courses and British degree programmes offered at ESE—he proposes classrooms without desks or hierarchies, where students and professors are collaborators and partners contributing their own originality.

The Era of Creative Leisure and the End of Labor Slavery

One of the most striking points of the gathering was his perspective on the future of work in the face of automation and artificial intelligence. Far from seeing it as a threat, D’Anna defines it as a liberation for human beings.

“We have to be prepared for an era that our business school is already representing: the era of joblessness, which is a blessing. It is the blessing of golden and creative leisure. Working will become a crime. Man is made to dream.”

He advised the youth and businessmen present to stop imitating the mechanical cycles of modern society, describing traditional employment as a “self-created prison” and a form of slavery. In his vision, a single original idea can transform a person’s life without the need to beg for a job.

The Illusion of the Outside World and the Antagonist

Throughout the event, D’Anna insisted on a profound quantum premise taught across all ESE campuses: vision and reality are the same. According to the ESE founder, global conflicts, economic crises, and even diseases are mere projections of humanity’s inner states.

Before an audience of experts in international relations and business, D’Anna was forceful regarding individual responsibility, provocatively stating that “the victim is always guilty” because it is the individual who, unconsciously, gives their internal consent for adversity to occur.

“The outside world is just a projection. Everything you see and touch comes from within you. There is no bad guy out there. There is nothing that can victimize you if you do not victimize yourself. If you understand that the outside and the inside are the same, then you will know where to intervene.”

In this context, he redefined the figure of the “enemy” or business difficulties. For D’Anna, the antagonist does not appear to destroy, but because the individual has created it to overcome themselves: “The antagonist loves you much more than you can love yourself. They know the shortcut for you to hit the target.”

Stillness as the Engine of Success

In conclusion, D’Anna offered those present an internal “technology” to navigate life and business: self-observation and stillness. He explained that by ceasing to identify with fear, doubts, or suffering, they dissolve, allowing solutions and wealth to flow effortlessly.

“External success—victory—is just a result. You have to triumph within yourself. […] Pay attention to yourself. If you observe your inner hell in silence, in a few minutes it dissolves, and the answers, solutions, and healings arrive from the outside to reflect this inner victory.”

The event left the attendees—from young people looking for their place in the world to veterans of the corporate sphere—with a clear message: true leadership, true diplomacy, and true economics do not begin in boardrooms or parliaments, but in the absolute mastery of one’s own being.