Personal Notes Series 022 : The Pianist

There was once a man who was known to be an outstanding pianist and a teacher of this art. The teacher was known to be strict in his ways, doing things by his book and as a result, almost all who come to him for lessons eventually become great pianists as well. 

But there was one student he just couldn't get through. The student was young, brilliant but unorthodox in playing the piano. After months of training, the teacher and the student were both frustrated with their results. 

During one of their breaks, the teacher contemplated what was wrong with this particular student. The student was brilliant as he but didn't quite hit the right keys. Sometimes the pacing would be too fast or too slow, or sometimes the student would use alternative keys instead of the ones in his grand book. 

After some time, he had an idea.

The teacher asked the student to pick any piece from their practice sets and play it as the student liked and not by how they usually did it. 

The student enjoyed playing and the result was stunning. It was so surreal, the teacher decided to join in.

And with this, the teacher learned something very important:

While he did everything by his book and produced amazing students, he forgot that everyone is unique - in strength and in weaknesses - and by doing everything as he did, he took away his student's creativity. The teacher forgot how to have fun with his art just as he did in his younger years, and it was this unorthodox student that made him remember.

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I tried to recreate the story from an Anime I watched when I was in college. (Nodame Cantabile)

I remember in my early years of mentoring, I did things by the book. It was fun in the beginning. Everybody learns your style and when the perfect opportunity comes, you all make money and everybody is happy. But after the course finishes, this is where the real test begins. I found out there's a high mortality rate and my mentees would often feel lost. And while this is part of the whole "process," I later realized It wasn't all because of the students, and that they didn't try hard enough - in fact, they did.

The core of the problem wasn't the system as well as it was highly adaptable in any market conditions as long as you followed certain parameters and principles. The problem was the putting of students in a box and giving them a plug and play mindset towards trading.

Just like the pianist, I forgot the uniqueness of each person,  their strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly, their circumstances in life.

If your student wasn't comfortable with playing bounces even if it gave the best returns in the shortest amount of time, then don't force him to do it. There are tons of other setups to choose from! 

If you're a full-time trader, don't force your ideology that being a full-time trader is better than being part-time and vice versa. Wag mo e-pressure. It might be easy to say because you're already set in life - but what if that mentee has a family to feed and no other source of income?

It took a while for me to realize this.

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It's been such a ride looking back on my experiences as a student, trader, and mentor of the markets. I guess what I'm trying to say here is this: 

In every progression, don't forget to have fun.

You can't spell Chart without ART.

(Snippet from a Reaction Paper from one of our Masterclass Students.)