Top Ten Lessons I Learned Incorrectly

There are some lessons taught incorrectly. It's another example humans are not perfect. We thought we learned correctly. Time passes. Some mistakes are called out by someone else. Shock and embarrassment follow. We are doing it wrong for the longest time.

I was inspired to blog today's top ten when I thought back to my parental guidance. My parents taught me more lessons and knowledge incorrectly than the average parents. I remember my mom saying a glass of milk was enough breakfast during my pre-school and kindergarten. My mom was lazy preparing breakfast on school days. She cooked pancakes sometimes on weekends. The lazy way is number eight in my top ten.

Here are the top ten lessons I learned incorrectly:

10. Driving on the freeway is like driving on the expressway without signal lights. The San Jose Metropolitan area consists of expressways with signal lights. Cars can drive up to 50 miles per hour. My dad told me the freeway lesson when I drove with a learners permit. Obviously the lesson was wrong. The truth is my dad didn't want to ride with me and teach me freeway driving.

9. Prejudice. I'm sad I was taught prejudice. Prejudging people because of the color of their skin is wrong.

8. The Easy Way And The Lazy Way. Life was too easy for me growing up. My childhood was too easy. There was no excitement. There were no adventures. It was a plain childhood. I have few stories to share connecting my parents.

My parents continue their easy and lazy attitudes entering their retirement years. Their lives can be better if they made efforts in their daily lives. They failed to teach me if I want something in life, I must earn it the hard way.

7. Cheap. There is a difference between buying on sale and buying cheap. For instance, my parents provided a black & white television they got for free when my brother and I played video games during our childhood. Another instance was my dad installed a low-flow toilet he got free. Everyone complained the toilet didn't clean the entire bowl and there was a leak. My dad replaced the free toilet with a non low-flow toilet.

I'm not a cheap person today. There is a saying, "a person who saves a dime ends up spending a dollar."

6. Stayed Indoors Too Much. My classmates teased me being a homeboy. I didn't know the meaning homeboy. The homeboy teasing moments were revisited in 2009. I realized there were many childhood adventures and experiences I missed. I vowed to catch up what I missed in my life starting in 2009. For example, I snuck candy in a movie theater and I peed outdoors on a hiking trail.

5. The Purchase Order Process. Some incorrect lessons were incorrectly learned outside the home. My current job taught me their purchase order process. I knew it was wrong from my accounting classes. My manager acknowledged their PO process is incorrect. The incorrect process continues today.

4. Writing. My English 1A and 1B classes taught me writing creatively. There's nothing wrong with writing creatively. The real world abolishes creative writing. Thank goodness the Economics 100W Writing Workshop professor taught me correctly.

3. Cooking. My mom taught me her way of cooking. It sucks and tastes plain. I need improvement. I plan to learn more in time.

2. Do It Myself. Learn To Do It Myself. The results were less than satisfactory when my parents completed a task, assignment, or errand themselves most of the time. The misleading lesson is unlearned. There's nothing wrong learning to do something myself. Sometimes I need help. Sometimes I need to hire a professional.

It seems number 2, number 7, and number 8 can be connected.

1. Commercial Real Estate Statistics. I was taught how to calculate the real estate statistics from the senior research analyst. Most of the numbers were calculated incorrectly. The warning signs were there. The problems were ignored. Some of the statistics were corrected when I caught the error. I couldn't explain why the rest of the statistics were not corrected.

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