Lessons I Learned from Breaking Bad

***This is a re-post from my personal blog that I don't share the link to, but since I think this is also appropriate for this blog, and so, I posted it here as well, not just the link. Spoilers ahead to those who have not yet watched the TV series.***

My husband and I finished watching the last episode of the season finale of Breaking Bad. I know we came too late, since the show has already ended last year and people already know who Walter White was as a chemistry teacher turned meth cook, turned drug lord "Heisenberg".

Downloaded from online, we both watched it from season 1 episode 1 until season 5 episode 16, which was the last episode "Felina," to close the whole Breaking bad saga. It the best show on TV with it's best crazy ending!

Now why is this Mormons girl watching a tv show with questionable morals. We'll because I wouldn't keep watching it if I didn't learn anything from it. I just can't stop like many other fans out there. Along with watching the Series, I also learned some little piece of wisdom here and there, and I will enumerate it here:

*Even if you're not interested much in it, try as much as possible to listen to your chemistry teacher.
     Chemistry is not very much interesting to me when I was studying it back in high school, and college since our class for it was held after lunch. I always feel dozing off thinking that my teachers are so boring or it must just be the way they would discuss on the chemical components of stuff. In reality, chemistry has an everyday use. As Mr. White has put it, "Chemistry is the study of TRANSFORMATION!"
     I use to think that hydrofluoric acid was just used to clean our bathroom and toilet. I never thought that you could dispose anything with it using a barrel of plastic container, even a dead body. So who needs to spend for funerals? Just kidding!

*Learn how to negotiate, delay it a little bit.
     There are different ways to do it. Some negotiations are easier than others, but nevertheless, no matter how hard of a shell the person you are talking to, if you are persistent and know how to delay it a little bit, you might just get the deal. Take for example Skyler's negotiation when she was trying to buy A1 Carwash. At first the owner doesn't want to sell it to her.Using her accounting skills, she was able to pay someone else to help her change the owner's mind.
     Later, while transacting over the phone, Skyler was sticking to her guns about the price. After a few minutes of consideration, The seller rang her phone again, she made it ring a little bit more to make the guy on the other end of the line wait. When she answered the phone, she got the deal that was in her favor.

*Love your family no matter what, forgive them if they make mistakes, and love them even if one day they will hate you.
     One good thing about Walter White's characteristic is even though he turned into a notorious person of a druglord, he loved his family no matter what. He forgave his wife's infidelity, although at first he was mad about it. His son hated him after finding out about what he does to earn a living for his family. Calling him names that a dog would not even eat, but still he left him 9million720thousand dollars to be given on Flynn's 18th birthday, trusting the help of  Gretchen and Elliot.

*Never stop so long as there is market to fill for your products.
     When Tuco Salamanca died, Walter found Gus Fring... When Gus died, he dealt with Mike and Jesse and Lydia. Walter believes in his product and he believes in the market that he could fill, so he kept on going. Sidenote: If you want to keep going, make sure it's legal.

*Don't work too hard just to sell out. 
     I love that part of the episode where Walter and Jesse were conversing about the business and buying out for 5million. Jesse told Walt, that when he first met him, all he knows is that what Walt only needed was 737thousand dollars for his cancer treatment. He said to him that 5million is not nothing. Then Walter explained that he had not worked hard just to sell out.
     He then briefly told the story about the company he once co-founded.back in grad school called the Grey Matters Technology, when he made a business mistake by buying out, now the company is worth billions with the B. He then emphasized to Jesse that he is not in the meth or money business but that he is in the empire business.

*You have to learn how to be rich, the poor can only manage.
     One of the conversations between Gus and Walter, back when Gus was one of my favorite character, for some reason, not all hehe... It was because Walt wants to get straight into business with that is why he went up to see him, but Gus was taking some time smelling and enjoying the food. He was like come taste the food that I cooked, . What he actually said to Walt was, "You're a wealthy man now Walter White, you have to learn how to be rich, the poor can only manage."
     This advice can be good for anyone who has ambitions in life. After some hard work, take time to relax even just a bit. Work again once your rejuvenated, that is the way of the successful people. .

*Learn the rules so you know how to break them.
     Yes, it is an old adage but from watching this TV series, Walter was a good example of it, since he had been breaking the law. He also keeps a sleazy lawyer Saul Goodman handy, and calls on him when things don't go well, so somebody can clean up the mess. Morally what he'd been doing has always been questionable, but he's never gotten caught because he knows his way out, though I could also say that Gus was always ahead.
     Towards the end, he used the help of Gretchen and Elliot to get the money to his son. He did not do it in person because he knew it was drug money and that the government will not let his family have it if they found out. With this he decided that if Gretchen and Elliot were to be the alleged benefactor for it, it would seem so legal considering the two are funding for an organization that helps meth heads get back on track with their lives. For Walt, going through Elliot and Gretchen to give his son all the money he's got left,would leave him no suspicion that a father who cared so much for his son and family provided for their needs though that money was acquired by an illegal means.

*Finish what you started.
     Every time they get screwed, it was always Walt who would do something to fix the situation. The Season finale ending was great and bitter because, Walt was able to tie all the lose ends of it all, killing all the guys who killed his brother-in-law and threatened his family, though whatever happened to Jesse was left to the audiences, to judge and make theories of.
      In life, though sometimes people leave us hanging, It is always better to finish what you started and say goodbye when it's time to let go.

So, there! Those were the things that I've learned from watching Breaking Bad.You might say, well I've been discussing good things that happens to bad people. Then I say this, you are already a good person, you may learn from the foolish but don't do foolish things. I'm just writing down the positives, you can leave the bad stuff behind, you won't need that. Cheers!

Dear Mister Kiyosaki,

Dear Mister Kiyosaki,

You've written such a great book about financial literacy and entrepreneurship and I admire you for that since Financial literacy is not taught so much in schools and parents rarely discuss about finances at home with their kids, thus many are uneducated about money in that sense; But it really drives me nuts whenever you or somebody else would quote the part where you said:

Over the last couple weeks, all across our country, school has been starting for American youths. The start of school is a hectic and exciting time for parents, and a proud one. All good parents want to give their children an advantage in life, and the conventional wisdom is that doing well in school is one of the best advantages you can give a child.

Rarely, however, do we stop and ask, "Why?"

What are our schools teaching our kids? Is it really the information they need to succeed in life? Are they being taught to think for themselves and to solve problems? Or are they being taught to take orders and follow rules? Will they really have an advantage in life? ( and then you go on inviting people to read you blog)

The downside I see about it is that, yes you did quote that going to school will not make you rich, and to some other people like yourself it may be true, but to others it isn't. The sad part is, most people only get the part where the emphasis of not going to school is being mentioned. They did not get the other part as you explained that there is another education someone has to take besides the academics, and that is financial education.

Instead of discouraging parents in sending their kids to school, why don't you just encourage them to inject Financial Education at home, on top of their academic subjects? Instead of discouraging your readers to go to school and get an education, why don't you just try to make a movement that will encourage schools to add Financial Literacy as a part of their curriculum in class? For sure there are a lot of kids out there who only knows how to ask and spend the money that their parents are making, whether from business or from they salary from employment.

Mister Kiyosaki, not every person who quits school are always successful like you Sir. There are some people who needs to invest more on themselves and that will need the aid of getting good education that the school can offer. Not everyone can be an entrepreneur, each individual has different skills and while not everyone can earn so much money like you do, they can still save so much money and reaching their dreams by getting themselves educated financially.