Day 7 - Teacher's Take | Week 1

What Happened When We Gave a 13-Year-Old an Impossible Goal

Week 1 is complete.

Seven days ago, Grandpa needed his boat sold and asked Ricky for help.

Today, Ricky has $4,000 less expenses in profit, a real business, and a decision to make about what comes next.

But this isn't really about the money.

This is about what happens when you stop asking students to prepare for life and start asking them to live it.

The Dots That Connected

I've been thinking a lot about how we got here.

Three seemingly random moments converged within one week:

Dot 1: A parent-teacher conference where we all admitted we need to get creative with Ricky to teach him reading and writing.

Dot 2: Ricky negotiating a 45% discount on a sweatshirt, showing his natural talent for empathy, people, and communication.

Dot 3: His Grandpa asking for help selling a boat.

When I saw these three dots forming a line, I asked myself: What if we stopped trying to fix Ricky's "school problem" and started building around his actual strengths?

What if we made entrepreneurship the curriculum?

The Challenge Was Designed to Fail

Let me be honest about something: The $1 million goal is nearly impossible.

I knew that when I proposed it.

A 250x return in 365 days? That's not realistic through traditional business fundamentals. That's venture capital (high risk, high reward).

But here's a life lesson that I've learned: Small goals create small thinking.

Ricky's original goal was to pocket the profit and then he'd probably just bought nonsense "stuff". That's not what this is about.

An impossible goal forces different questions:

• How can I scale?
• Who can help me?
• What am I capable of that I don't know yet?
• What do I need to learn?

The goal is to learn to ask different questions.

The Boat Sale Wasn't About the Boat

Yes, Ricky made $4,000.

But watch what actually happened:

He learned patience. He turned down $7,000 and $8,000 offers and waited for $9,500.

He learned negotiation. He countered instead of accepting the first offer.

He learned to control what he could control. He couldn't force someone to buy, but he could take good photos, write a compelling listing, and price it strategically.

He learned to celebrate small wins. Getting the listing live was a victory. Getting an offer was a victory. The sale was the culmination, not the only moment worth celebrating.

These lessons cost most people decades to learn. Ricky learned them in five days.

What I'm Learning as the Teacher

This isn't just Ricky's experiment. It's mine too.

Lesson 1: The Best Education Happens Outside the Classroom

In one week, Ricky learned:

• Market research
• Pricing strategy
• Negotiation
• Sales copy
• Customer service
• Financial tracking
• Decision-making under pressure

Show me a classroom that teaches all of that in one week.

Lesson 2: Failure Is the Curriculum

I'm documenting this publicly. The good, the bad, and the ugly because I want other educators, parents, teachers to see what's possible when we let students fail forward.

If Ricky only hits $200,000 instead of $1 million, that's not failure. That's an extraordinary outcome with extraordinary lessons.

If Ricky loses his current profit, that's a lesson (not a failure).

The only real failure would be not trying.

Lesson 3: Community Accelerates Everything

Ricky ended Day 6 asking for help. That's wisdom.

Entrepreneurship isn't a solo journey. Neither is education, neither is parenting, neither is life.

The best learning happens in community when you ask questions, get feedback, share your process, and let others contribute to your growth.

That's what we're building here at Flip-N-Ricky. Not just a business, but a learning community.

What's Next

Week 2 begins tomorrow.

Ricky will need to identify his next steps.

We'll document the research process, the decision, the purchase, and then the attempt to sell it for profit.

The real work starts now.
This is where it gets hard.

Week 1 was about momentum and belief.
Week 2 is about execution and learning.

I don't know if we'll hit $1 million in 365 days.

But I know Ricky will learn more in the next year than he learned in the previous seven years of traditional school combined.

And I know this experiment will teach me, and hopefully you, something about what education could be if we were brave enough to reimagine it.

Let's see what Week 2 brings.

The Numbers - Week 1 Summary

Money Spent: $65.17

• $24.18 (GoDaddy website hosting)
• $25.00 (Lovable - Month 1)
• $00.00 (Claude.AI - Free Month for blog SEO)
• $15.99 (Ghost.io - Month 1 for newsletter/blog)

Money Brought in: $4,000

• $4,000 from boat sale (profit after paying Grandpa)

Current Profit: $0

Ricky's Emotional Range This Week: Fear 2.0 → Joy 10.0

Follow Ricky's Journey:
Blog: flipnricky.com
Social: @FlipnRicky (Instagram | TikTok | Twitter)
Email: flipnricky@gmail.com