EP 169: The True Cost of a Bad Teacher

In this episode, I tell you about how I flunked out of school... almost. I share with you my experience while in college, and how one statistics professor nearly made me give up entirely. I walk through the three lessons I learned from this experience and just how much a bad teacher can impact you and your future. If you're someone who is struggling in the stock market or under bad guidance, tune in. A good teacher can change everything. Let's make sure we find the right ones.

Stock Market Starter Pack:https://thebrownreport.com/stock-market-starter-pack-hp/
Options Starter Pack: https://thebrownreport.com/option-trading-guide-hp/

Transcript

Jason Brown [00:00:00]:
In this episode of the 5 year millionaire podcast, I'm sharing with you a story of how I almost flunked out of school. And listen, it was not my fault, but I will tell you whose fault it was and what I learned from it. Let's get into it. Have I ever told you the story about the time we're almost flunked out of school? Well, if not, you're about to hear about it now. And here's the thing, it was not my fault. It was not my fault, but it was the teacher's fault. And I'm I'm blaming the teacher. I have not taken responsibility for this.

Jason Brown [00:00:41]:
If you're new to the podcast, stock market coach and option trader, Jason Brown, and this is the 5 year millionaire podcast. Listen to the audio. Thank you for tuning in on whatever platform you're listening to. And if you're watching on YouTube, Hey, what's up? Hit the subscribe button. Give me a thumbs up and a like, just just hit the like button right now and assume you're gonna like the episode. Do me that favor. It's free. Just press the button.

Jason Brown [00:01:05]:
But the topic I wanna talk about today was the true cost of having a bad teacher. You see, I was going to school here in Detroit, Michigan at Wayne State University in the Mike Gillis School of Business before I transitioned to business. I was in engineering school. I end up eventually graduated from the Mike Ilich School of Business, but I was an engineering student. And in engineering, I had to take all these, you know, engineering classes and math classes, and I'll never forget in statistics. I think it was stat 2. I passed stat 1. I think it was stat 2.

Jason Brown [00:01:36]:
So this is 1, statistics 2, I believe. I had this teacher, and I took this class, and, oh, my goodness. Statistics was so hard. And I had to take the class, what, like, 3 times. So the first two times I took it with the same teacher, and that teacher just made statistics so confusing, so hard and boring, might I add, may statistics boring. So when a a subject is boring, it's number 1, hard to pay attention, hard to feel motivated to come to class. And even if you can power through all that, you can mix a boring teacher with someone who makes it complicated, and, yeah, you get failure or you get taken a class 3 times, which is what happened to me. But something magical happened.

Jason Brown [00:02:28]:
I had an epiphany. I talked to some of my other students. I'm like, I just I'm not getting statistics. I'm taking such and such. And they was like I never forget the it was like a light bulb going on. Somebody was like, oh, you're taking I was like, oh, everybody know you shouldn't take his class. And I'm like, what you mean everybody know? Like, I obviously didn't know that. And they're like, oh, yeah.

Jason Brown [00:02:49]:
Take such and such. She explains it better. She's easy, and and easy didn't mean she, like, let people off. It was easy because this teacher made it simple, made it fun, didn't make it complicated. And so I'm like, okay. So the 3rd go round, which I'm about ready to drop out of school. I'm just like, look, engineering ain't in the cards for me. I can't get past stats too, which is statistical too.

Jason Brown [00:03:15]:
I'm like, it's just ain't in the cards for me, and that's what I really thought. Took it with this one young lady, literally had fun, was excited to show up, understood it and passed it the first time taking it with her. And so this was really interesting to me, and it got me thinking about the stock market because recently, not recently, but I have this happen all the time where I talk to people and they say, like, I took a, in another trading group or I'm trading with this company or this group or I'm in this group with these people. And I I see this happen all the time where I shouldn't say all the time. That's like an over exaggeration, but I see it happen often enough where people are in trading groups where the teacher is, I'm gonna say bad, The teacher is just bad. Okay. So what what what incident I had, a friend, we were just at this mastermind. I know you might be listening to the podcast too, but I think about how I'm like, well, how are they picking the stocks in there? How are they picking the options? And what's the price of this and that? And they weren't given the price of entry or exit.

Jason Brown [00:04:27]:
They were given the total cost, not really separating it by each option if they were doing advanced option strategies. It was basically confusing, and I know how to trade options. I consider myself a options expert, and I was borderline confused. Like, why did they pick that strike price? Why are they rolling this out? And it got me to thinking about my experience with my statistics teacher, and I started, thinking about the lessons that people may fail if they don't have a good teacher. And so when I looked at those options that this person was in that group was picking, I'm like, man, this can really turn someone off. So I wanna walk you through the 3 lessons that I learned from almost flunking out of school and having a bad statistics teacher, and I think it could apply to some people who may have a bad stock and options teacher. So lesson number 1 is almost flunked out of school. So lesson number 1 is a bad teacher can make you think an industry is not for you.

Jason Brown [00:05:27]:
You might think, what's wrong with me? You might think, maybe I'm not meant to be a stock trader. Maybe I'm not meant to be an option. Maybe I'm not meant to be an investor. I'm just not getting it when everybody else is, but you'll find a lot of people are fronting and pretending that they understand what the teacher is talking about, and they really don't. And maybe they're going home to their parents or getting supplemental instruction somewhere else that they need to pass the class, same thing with the stock market, but most people are fronting. They actually don't understand what's going on, and so that bad teacher can make you flunked out or drop out of an industry that is super powerful. Now, luckily, I was resilient, and I'm like, okay. If I'm gonna be an engineer, I have to pass this, so I'm gonna take it as many times as I need to take it in order to pass it.

Jason Brown [00:06:16]:
And that's a whole another lesson about being resilient and just telling the world that you're not going to negotiate with what you wanna become. You're gonna keep hammering on at it, beating on the craft until you pass, until you graduate, until you become that thing or that person that you wanted to be. And so number 1, a bad teacher can literally make you flunk out of school. Number 2, resilience can make you look life in the eyes and say, look, I ain't going nowhere. I don't care how many times I gotta take this at some point. I'm gonna pass it. And for me, that came in the form of taking it a 3rd time, but then switching and going to a different teacher. The second lesson I learned was I thought it was me.

Jason Brown [00:07:01]:
I actually thought I was dumb. I thought I was dumb. I was like, I just I'm not meant to get math, and I can't tell you how many people tell me that when it comes to the stock market. I'm not good at math, and I'm like, yes. You are good at math. I'll prove it. You have never went to the grocery store with $20, a $20 bill, and something that was $2 when you hand it to the cashier. If she gave you $5 back, you don't say, I think I'm supposed to get $18 back, but $5 sounds about right because I'm not good at math.

Jason Brown [00:07:36]:
Nobody does that. You would be like, hey. I think you shorted me $13. Right? All of a sudden, you're good at math. And so we say stuff like we're not good at math to protect ourselves from really just learning a new subject, but the reality is sometimes sometimes it has nothing to do with whether you're good at math or not. It has everything to do with whether that teacher was good at helping explain to you how the stock market works. And if you had someone who just threw some random terms at you, talked over your head, talked down on you, tried to use fancy language, or just was plain boring with this subject, then, of course, you're just like, look, this ain't for me. I'm either dumb or that's for them smart people.

Jason Brown [00:08:22]:
That's for everybody else, and it has a negative psychological effect on you. And if you've ever experienced this negative psychological effect and how would you know if you've had this negative psychological effect? If you've ever said something like, I'm not good at math, if you ever said something like, the stock market is boring, if you've ever said something like that's meant for other people, if you've ever said something like I don't need to get rich from the stock market, that is also a defense mechanism. Like, who doesn't wanna get rich from the stock market? Like, really? How else would you like to get rich? You wouldn't like to get rich from your money working hard for you instead of you working hard for it? Like, mm-mm. No. I'd rather build a friend, buy a McDonald's franchise, be in burgers and sweat and grease, and manage 16 year old kids. I'd rather start my own lawn care service and go door to door passing out flyers, buying lawnmowers, cutting grass. Like, really, who wouldn't wanna get rich from the stock market? But that's tells me that at some point in your life, you've had a negative psychological effect, and that's a defense mechanism. Why wouldn't you wanna be rich? People say stuff like, here's another one, they'll say.

Jason Brown [00:09:36]:
I just wanna make a little money from the stock market. I mean, I don't have to be rich or anything. I don't have to buy a big house or a fancy car. I'm thinking, yo. No. No. You don't have to, but, like, wouldn't you want to if that was a possibility? Wouldn't you wanna just donate to your churches, your maybe you don't wanna spend money on a car. Maybe you wanna donate to your churches, your charity, help a family member, but they don't come back and say, I don't wanna get rich.

Jason Brown [00:10:00]:
I wanna help a lot of people. They just leave it as if the stock market can't help them accomplish anything big, and maybe that's just not getting their hopes up. But I believe that's also part of saying you've had a negative psychological effect because somewhere down the line, you taught that you were taught that trying to get rich for the stock market is not for you. You were taught that the stock market is boring because maybe you grew up seeing boring older white men on TV just talk about it or something like that, and your perception is that it's just only a older retired person's game. Maybe you tried this before, but, like I said, you had a bad teacher, and they made you feel like you were dumb, which leads me to the second story. I'll never forget this story, and I I I should reach out to this young lady. I try to check with her once a year, but she is a I won't say what her profession is, but she reached out to me on Instagram, and she said, hey. You know, you're the first person that seems, like, down to earth and real with this.

Jason Brown [00:10:59]:
Can I ask you a question? And she said, could you jump online and help me with something? I'm like, okay. Is this a scam? Like, what's going on? Like, I don't really just jump online and help random people 1 on 1. I mean, unless I'm streaming live on my YouTube channel or something. But we jumped online, and she walked me through an Apple option that she had. And let's say Apple was trading at a $190. She had a $200 option, that she bought on Wednesday that expired on the Friday, and she paid 10¢ for it. And she said, well, in the group, they told me to buy the cheapest one I can buy. I said, well, it's cheap for a reason.

Jason Brown [00:11:32]:
The chance that Apple go get to 200 by Friday is slim to none. When's the last time Apple moved $5 a day, 2 days in a row? I was like, so you just made a donation. It cost her, like, $500. I'm like, you just donated $500 because I don't care that the option was 10¢. It's going to 0 by Friday. And she was like, I was like, you woulda did better buying this option. She's like, but that was more expensive. I'm like, yeah.

Jason Brown [00:11:56]:
But it's more likely that it'll expire in the money, and you won't lose all your money. And I said, what happened when you asked in that group? And she said, well and when I asked in the group, they were like, they kinda was like, what you mean you don't understand that? I was like, so they asked you a question with a like, they didn't explain it? She's like, no. They just try to make you feel stupid for asking a question. And I'm like, well, they probably are trying to make you feel stupid because they don't even know the answer. And I'm like, what kind of group is this? And it was so eye opening. And she actually, when I checked in with her last time, she was no longer trading. She was like, I'm just gonna focus on, you know, some other stuff. I'm not trading anymore.

Jason Brown [00:12:37]:
It was too complicated. And that really hurt my heart because a industry that's so super powerful, she got turned off just by having a bad teacher. So the 3rd lesson that I learned, well, in in in college was I got smart. I'm sorry to say, well, if I don't like a teacher style in the 1st 2 weeks, which is the period where I can drop the class, I I I would I would exit. Like, if 2 weeks of working with you didn't like, if I didn't like how you was teaching, I would drop the class, or I would go to 2 teachers' classes. Like, if I had a choice of taking class Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or having the choice of taking the class Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, I would go to the Monday teacher's class, and I would go to the Tuesday's teacher class, and I would just see who explained it the best or who kinda I felt like would be a better teacher before I signed up for the class or which allowed me to drop the class before I had to be on the hook for paying for the class. And so how that's helped me with respect to the stock market, even being a teacher or coach myself, is I try to give people a way to get a feel for what type of teacher I am, and I think they should do this with any type of coach or trainer, which is, you know, do they have podcasts? Do they have YouTube videos? Do they have a free PDF, by the way? Link in the description if you want my stock market starter pack or my stock options starter pack. But do do they have something that you can get a feel for how they teach, how they explain the concepts, how they explain the information.

Jason Brown [00:14:20]:
Because I like to tell people, if you like how I explain it for free, you're gonna love how I'll explain it for paid because you're just gonna get more of that. If you don't like how I'll explain it for free, then don't partner with me. Don't join me because you're just gonna get more of this and I'm okay. And that's okay if I'm not the guy for you. You should go find the guy or the girl for you the same way that I got smart about taking classes, and I would register for 2 teachers just to see who explained it the best. And if you're with a teacher that you're not getting it or understanding it, maybe it's time to come over, here to us and, and try learning the Powertrades University way. But I really, you know, believe in myself is, like, let's give people a sample. Let's teach some stuff on YouTube.

Jason Brown [00:15:07]:
Let's show them how you explain it because this is it. I remember one time this is actually kinda funny to me. I remember one time, 2 people were taking our program, and one person was like, hey. I referred my friend to you, and she actually didn't sign up. She said she likes how you teach, but she can't stand your voice. And I said, well, good for her. You know? Because I said, guess what? She's gonna hear this voice on every course, every module, every live training, every Monday night session, when I shoot a video and send a text alert, she is going to continue to hear this voice. And so if she can't stand my voice, she really should find someone who voice she can stand.

Jason Brown [00:15:52]:
Now I'm a little disappointed though, because I've been told I have a radio voice, little bit of Barry White in there. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, hey. Y'all been watching these stocks. I was joking, but for real, I've been doing I got a good broadcast voice, so I don't know what was wrong with her. She didn't like my voice. I she probably wanted me to talk with, like, the helium tank, like you know, you suck in the helium air balloon and talk like that. Maybe my editor can put that voice on here as I just said that. Anyway, I'm tripping.

Jason Brown [00:16:23]:
The point is, ladies and gentlemen, a bad teacher can cost you I mean, it really it could cost you more than you think. You could think that an industry isn't for you. You could think you're not dumb, and it's not for you. And then not to think about the time, the money, the investment, and the resources that you you put into it. So here's my ask for you. If you know somebody that is, if you, if you rock with me, whether you love my podcast episodes, my YouTube episodes, here's the thing. Here's my ask. If you rock with me, you rock with Powertrades University.

Jason Brown [00:16:55]:
If you know someone who is struggling in the stock market, you know someone who's working with another teacher who just isn't or another coach that isn't really getting through to them, I ask you to just do 2 things. Number 1, smash the like button for the YouTube algorithm, so that it could know to send this to other people. Number 2, share this episode. Now, if you listen to the podcast, you can't smash the like button, but smash the review button, give it a 5 star review, and then send this session, this copy, this video, this podcast, this audio, this blog post, if you're watching it on the website, just send it to one person. I'm out here working for free for y'all. Do something free for your boy. Send this to somebody who could use hearing this information. It can potentially change their life.

Jason Brown [00:17:41]:
I'll see you on the next episode.