2. Chemistry has everyday applications
The next time you dispose of a corpse with hydrofluoric acid, all you devoted Breaking Bad viewers will know not to dissolve the body in a bathtub, but instead in a plastic container. You learned this valuable tip in Season 1, when Walt's lab assistant Jesse Pinkman disregarded his instructions and regretted it. The acid memorably dissolved through the bathtub and floor at Jesse's house, leaving a bloody mess in the hallway downstairs. You won't make that mistake.
3. Family is oh, so important
Breaking Bad reminds you that entering the drug trade and messing with the wrong people in it can lead to your wife and teenage son despising you. It can also lead to your brother-in-law getting brutally murdered. You would hate that if it happened.
4. Build a better mousetrap
Steve Jobs knew it. Jeff Bezos knows it. Walt White serves as a mythical champion of their kind of acumen: Offer a better product with an obvious advantage, and the world (or, anyway, addicts who loved Walt's super-potent "blue sky" crystal meth) will beat a path to your door.
5. Need a lift? Try a personal makeover
If you're stuck in a rut, like Walter White at the start of Breaking Bad, consider a new look. Shave your head, grow a tidy, I-mean-business beard and fit yourself with a black pork pie hat. Then come up with a new name. Like Heisenberg. In your new identity, people will fear you and you're sure to go far.
6. Keep your personal vehicles, especially your RV, in good running order
A regular checkup to keep Walt's rolling meth lab in tip-top shape would have spared him and Jesse inconvenience, not to mention mortal danger.
7. Keep a shrewd lawyer on call, especially if you mean to routinely break the law
Sure, he may be a sleazebag and a shameless self-promoter. But a lawyer like Saul Goodman ("Better call Saul!'') is worth his weight in hundred-dollar notes to a client like Walter White, whom he represented faithfully, if more than often sarcastically. With his mastery of trade practices - legal and illegal - Saul was the most impressive TV lawyer since Perry Mason.
8. Like it or hate it, Obamacare might cut down on illegal drug trade (at least on TV)
If financially strapped schoolteacher Walt White had had better health care when he got his cancer diagnosis, maybe he wouldn't have begun cooking meth to help cover his expenses. Meanwhile, his long-term problem - leaving his family provided for after his death - might have been a non-issue had teachers in his district been better paid. On the other hand, if Walt had found himself in less of a jam, there would have been no Breaking Bad.
9. Finish what you start
It's never good to leave hanging important tasks. Walt is a shining example of a guy determined to tie up loose ends. That was part of why the Breaking Bad finale was so good.
10. Follow your bliss (and be willing to forge a different path getting there)
Walter White discovered this lesson. Vince Gilligan demonstrated its wisdom in real life by creating Breaking Bad, a radically different series. So did AMC execs by airing what turned out to be perhaps the best drama of all time. How many other networks are willing to learn?
Take a look the review of the Breaking Bad series final *Warning: spoilers*
- AP
