Bouncing back from a loss is THE hardest lesson to learn in financial literacy (even though losses are inevitable). 

It is going to happen. 

But what you do after that loss will define how high you will ever go.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the most dominant player in college basketball at one time. At 7’2” he literally towered over his competition. Kareem was so dominant, that the NCAA once outlawed dunking in order to stop him. 

You heard that correctly, they banished dunking in basketball.

But instead of accepting this barrier to his dominance, Kareem developed his now famous skyhook – which made him even more unstoppable (and famous).

Post Traumatic Growth: stresses force you to be creative to overcome a setback

-Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile

I was able to buy my 1st rental property at the age of 21 but lost it by 23. I lost it because I did not understand financing or cashflow. 

After I finally picked myself back up, I picked apart what went wrong, then I got back in the game and was able to buy the second house. I made the down payment and closing cost in the stock market in a matter of months, got incredibly great financing, and ended up making 3.5 x’s what I paid to acquire the property. 

I’ve since met incredible realtors, bankers, and mortgage brokers who have assisted and taught me along the way.

I started this financial journey on a quest for survival because of childhood trauma. But along the journey, I discovered that I wasn’t good at it because I was the smartest. I got good at it because of determination. I got good at it because through all of the extreme highs and devastating lows, I never quit. I never liked any of the losses but chose to learn from them all and pivot when necessary.

“For all the doors that had to close, for all the things I thought, but I didn’t know. Thank God for all I’ve missed, because it led me here to this”. 

-Darius Rucker, This

My life has been one long financial journey filled with adventure. I’ve recently retired early and I now use lessons learned from those lived experiences to teach financial literacy to the youth, young adults, and the mothers who raise them.

Financial Literacy: Monk Says…Learn The Game