In Miami, the controversy surrounding academies is growing: courses created by individuals who have succeeded in business and are now selling their methods to others.
For some, they are a way to replicate successful models; for others, they represent a scam that takes advantage of those who want to get ahead but lack funds.
Adalberto Ravelo, founder of Dolphy School, addressed this debate in the , the podcast for Cuban entrepreneurs from CiberCuba, hosted by Katia Sánchez.
Ravelo runs a school that, according to him, has seen more than 50,000 students pass through. Dolphy School is also the sponsor of the program.
"Fraud is people."
"Academies are not a fraud. The people who are in certain academies are a fraud," stated the businessman of Cuban origin.
Ravelo argues that paying to learn from someone with experience makes sense.
“There is a person who possesses certain knowledge, went to bed at two in the morning studying, preparing, and has reached the path of success while you have not arrived yet. And that costs money,” he emphasized.
As an example, he mentions his own business. He explained that the insurance courses at Dolphy School are certified and approved by the State of Florida, and the school is an authorized provider of the IRS for tax courses.
“When you have that level of authorization, it is completely different,” he stated.
He also claimed to be aware of places that promise insurance courses without providing guarantees that the student will obtain the license.
How to distinguish a reputable academy?
His recommendations for those considering enrolling in a course are as follows:
- Review the academy's history and how long it has been operating.
- Read the reviews from former students.
- Check the certifications: what official degrees or licenses it can provide you with and which ones it cannot.
- Beware of those who lack a track record.
During the talk, Katia Sánchez added that anyone who teaches must have been successful in what they teach and should not limit themselves to copying content from ChatGPT.
The "easy path" and the student's responsibility
Ravelo also attributes part of the responsibility to the students, as in his opinion, many people seek shortcuts.
"The easy path, even if you think otherwise, is to pay you three or four thousand dollars for you to teach me. The difficult path is for you to try to gather all that knowledge, make mistakes, fail, and eventually succeed," he stated.
He also criticized those who pay for a course, do not study, and then blame the academy: "They may be scammers, but you were the one who contributed the biggest element of foolishness. And excuse the word."
Ravelo believes that those who do not want to pay for training can learn on their own.
"Study, experiment, make mistakes, because you will learn from those mistakes."
Remember that today there is information available on the internet and through artificial intelligence tools, although it acknowledges the difficulty of selecting useful content.
From her blog to having 50,000 students
Ravelo clarified that he did not plan to set up a school. He arrived in Miami at the age of 37, worked in construction and at Bongo's Cuban Café, and then began selling insurance.
By 2005, he taught himself online marketing and wrote articles about how to obtain an agent's license.
According to reports, the hundreds of comments from readers asking where to study led him to open Dolphy School in 2014.
He started as the sole teacher with three or four students per classroom.
After a failed partnership, in 2016 he had to reopen the school and spent nearly two years without selling any courses.
However, Ravelo reports that currently his academy has more than 15 teachers, over 37 course modalities, and a presence in Florida, Georgia, Texas, and the Carolinas.
Watch the full episode on YouTube or on the .
$how me the mon€y is the podcast for Cuban entrepreneurs by CiberCuba, hosted by Katia Sánchez and presented by Dolphy School, the program's sponsor. .
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