We all search for answers. Who am I? Where am I going? Brain Cafe was founded on the single principle that we are limited only by those bounds we ourselves define.

The perimeters of life can be viewed as a fence, which leads one to ask ... is the fence there to keep others out or is it there to keep us in?

Hi, my name is John Pawlak, and I am the founder of Brain Cafe. During my twenty-plus years of professional experience in Product and System Development and Advanced Technology Planning, I had the pleasure of working with many skilled people. And of all the skills I saw, the most valuable skill of them all was effective thinking.

Perhaps you are thinking "Everyone can think, can't they? Why would we place so much value on so common a skill?"

Ah, but there is a great difference between thinking and effective thinking!

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
                                                - Frank Outlaw

Having witnessed so many changes in our world in so short a time, I decided to become an educator, an instructor, a teacher, a coach. The opportunity to develop young minds, the thinkers of our tomorrows, is more exciting and more rewarding than all my previous challenges.

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or a gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.

And so we created Brain Cafe, home to Junior Leadership and Effective Thinkers. Welcome to the Cafe!