My first school trip

 

I got the privilege of doing something this week that I have never done before. I got invited to be a guest speaker at a local high school and teach three 90-minute sessions.

The teacher who invited me is a friend named Josh. The subject he teaches is construction, and it has three phases. Construction 1 is the first period, made up mainly of freshmen, and its purpose is to teach safety. This is very important because after you pass this class and move into Construction 2, they actually let the kids use saws, including table saws, and shoot nail guns. As you can imagine, when you have 20-plus sophomore/ junior aged kids in a shop, they need to understand the importance of safety so that no one goofs off and winds up losing a finger… or worse.

 

And the final period of the day is Construction 3, which is made up of juniors and seniors. These young men and women are already specializing in specific trades, and some have even entered the workforce.

 

The reason I was there was because Josh likes to bring in guest speakers to give the kids an idea of what things are like in the real world. He brings in business owners and contractors to talk to the class about what it takes to be successful in life, what it’s like running a business and things they need to know to get jobs. The kids are often prompted to ask questions like what business owners look for in employees.

 

When I asked Josh what he would like me to speak on, he pretty much told me to talk about whatever I thought they could benefit from.

 

That proved to be a little difficult for me. I’m no stranger to public speaking. I teach at REIAs, I have my monthly lunch meeting, and I do sermons periodically. And when I do either of these, I know what the audience is after and know how to put my talk together. But since I had no idea who I was going to be speaking to, and didn’t have a specific topic requested, I had somewhat of a tough time figuring out what I was going to say.

 

I had a couple of weeks to decide. And the question I kept asking myself was what do I wish someone would’ve told me in high school that I didn’t learn until later. As I thought about that, I wished someone would have told me the truth. I got told throughout school that I needed to go to college, get good grades so I could get a good job.

Well, I did that. I went to school, was on the presidents list and in an honor society, and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology. But when I went to go put all that together to find a good job, one of two things happened: 1. I got told I had no experience. 2. I was told I was overqualified for the job.

 

I’ll never forget the day I finally got two job interviews. One was for a potential job working as a quality control technician at a plant in Rome, the other was for a field technician position with a major pest control company. I remember sitting in my bedroom that night and just feeling so let down. I had done what the teachers said. I got good grades, I graduated, and the “good jobs” I was qualified for was working on a line or as a bug man. Not that there’s anything wrong with those careers. It just wasn’t the opportunities I pictured a biology degree, and the time and debt put into it, would afford me. As such, I sat there in my room just feeling lied to.

 

So on the day I taught, I laid it out for the kids. I talked to them about things like I mentioned above — how I wished trade school would’ve been pushed more— and other things I was taught in school that turned out not to be true in the real world. Things like how school makes failure a bad thing. But in the real world, failure is how you find your way to success.

 

I introduced the idea of work to learn, not earn. And I told them two stories of how that mentality, the idea of being willing to give in order to get, opened doors for me and Ashley that we never would have got through on our own.

 

We talked about many other things but ended with the importance of buying capital assets and how they are the way to stop trading your time for money.

 

I’ll be honest, the freshman class was a little difficult. Most of them were cutting up and or sleeping. But the next two classes stayed engaged and asked some really awesome questions. And all in all, it went well. And we even carved out some time to do a core value exercise to help them understand themselves to align with companies in the future.

I’ve never done anything like that. And I didn’t know what to expect. But I can say this, I was super impressed with the last class — the one made up of juniors and seniors. Not only were they attentive, but they were respectful, asked great questions, and I could tell they had good heads on their shoulders. And I was glad to see, for at least this class, our school system was turning out some good kids who are ready to hit the workforce in the trades. Which is something we desperately need.

 

Anyway, that was my first trip to school. And I hope it made a difference.

 

Joe and Ashley English buy houses and mobile homes in Northwest Georgia. For more information or to ask a question, go to www.cashflowwithjoe.com or call Joe at 678-986-6813.