Who starts over this late in the game?

I wrote a book!  Yee Haaaa! It’s imaginatively titled, “The Fegan Method of Learning.” Well, I invented it, so why not. I told my friends about it; I told my students about it; I told my kids about it; I told my fellow church members about it. My church friends said, “YOU SHOULD HAVE A BOOK SIGNING AT THE CHURCH!!”  Yes! That would be great. I could sell the book on-site at a discount price, get some subscribers to my newsletter, and maybe pick up some clients. There are many parents with school-aged kids here.

I wanted to appeal to those parents, especially those who have concluded that their children had dropped behind in their schooling due to COVID issues. And how about those parents whose kids have been dragging on the bottom of the class for a couple of years? Wouldn’t they like to see their kids get caught up too? How about those parents whose kids have been labeled “unteachable”? What if there was a way to teach them the way they learn instead of the way everyone thinks they should learn?

So, I had my book signing…

I am reminded of what the great John C. Maxwell said,

1. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
2. You don’t attract who you want, you attract what you are.

I care about kids who are unfairly labeled, kids who are stifled by their schools because they think so much faster, those who dread going to school for daily torture, students who think that to pass the class they must memorize the textbooks. I hate to see frustrated kids!!!! It really grinds my gears to watch as the government keeps throwing money, regulating teachers and programs, adding social requirements but avoiding things like keeping children safe in the school, and applying band-aids to a problem they caused because they don’t let teachers teach. Now those poor education majors have to learn to pass the test and they don’t even know how to teach kids how to learn which was the 1st thing that should be done. So I do care about kids, their learning, their feeling of self-worth, and their ability to create and invent and use their imaginations. I do care about teachers that are overwhelmed, burned out, frustrated, and stifled.

So, what am I up against? Anyone who is good at learning is demonized. Genius is ridiculed. Hard work in studying is reduced to memorizing things that have absolutely no value. The ability to think is black magic. All children MUST learn the same way and at the same rate.

The axiom for the first quote is this: People don’t care how much you know, or how you know it. And they don’t care if you care.

One of my affirmations would sound weird to most people. I know that because if I share it, people think it odd that anyone would have an affirmation like that.

My eyes are open to see people like me because there ARE people like me, and they need what I have to give them.

What a bunch of BS. I saw a bunch of people around me that I thought were like me—a person who loves learning, searching for the truth, examining the world around them, raising their consciousness to appreciate everything from group dynamics to cultural geography, to science, to music, to physical sciences…there’s nothing that doesn’t fascinate. They’re not like me at all.

I took steps in creating a coaching business to help people grow their consciousness and expand their thinking skills. Nobody wants that. It’s too much trouble. They already graduated from 12^th grade and now they sit in their recliners and growl because they learned recorder instead of tax preparation, learned algebra instead of real estate, learned Shakespeare instead of the art of interviewing for a job. What keeps them from learning tax preparation, real estate, and job interviewing skills now? Nothing? Well, nothing except they are through with school and will never learn another thing, read another book or magazine (at least the ones without the fold-out pictures in the middle) again. They’re done. At 18. Or heck, at 21. And these people have children now and their kids don’t want to learn anything beyond what is absolutely vital to them. Watch those “man on the street” interviews.

Interviewer, “How many states are there in the United States?”
Man on the street, “5?”

Interviewer, “From whom did we win our independence?”
Man on the street, “Mexico? No, Canada? Wait, um…”

Interviewer, “What language do they speak in Idaho?”
Man on the street, “Potatoes.”

And my favorite—

Interviewer, “What would you call a 4-sided figure?”
Man on the street, “I dunno, it’s been since 5^th grade since I studied figures.” Square, rectangle, parallelogram, rhombus, quadrangle, any one of those.

So, as I said before, I had my book signing. In the church after the last service. For an hour. No one showed up. People that walked by on their way out of the church congratulated me on my book and then just averted their eyes and kept going.

It has become apparent to me that there are no people like me.

I have been called a genius. I have a learning system that works so I am very educated. I doubt I am a genius though. I figured that showing people this system would help them raise their education level, and maybe even reveal the genius within them. I care that people do not reach their full potential because of a lack of learning in some area, and if they could comprehend a 6-step process, they could have whatever they wanted. How great would that be?!!!

So, I devised my business to serve a niche market and devised my ideal customer. Briefly, it’s parents who want to see their kids succeed in life by adopting a system that allows them to learn any subject.

These people do not exist. Parents are not anxious about how to get their kids caught up and able to assimilate any information, skill, or idea in any discipline from the arts to sports to STEM to literature and languages. They are anxious to find someone to blame for their kids’ failure. And it has nothing to do with them, it’s the government, the school systems, the school boards, those wacko liberals, those tight-assed conservatives, the terrorists, the Chinese, the economy, their Ford dealership, and the fact that Pizza Hut doesn’t give prizes for reading anymore. They have no intention of looking for a solution to their kids’ problems.

I don’t have 30 more years to build up a new reputation as a master teacher/super educator. I don’t have enough influence to change anyone’s mind about how learning can work. I cannot change the culture. I have trophies, plaques, degrees, certifications, and accreditations because this system works. But I will be the only one in the world that knows this system. I will continue to give my piano lessons one on one and will have 0 impact on my world.

I have written books no one will read, music no one will perform, ideas that no one will consider, speeches no one will remember, questions no one will answer, and answers to questions no one will ask. I now have 2 websites that don’t work and ½ a landing page that no one will go to.  And when I die, if anyone actually comes to the funeral, they’ll lean over the casket and snap their fingers and grin and say, “Yup, she’s finally quiet.”

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