Alumni spotlight: Jason Brown
Wayne State University is known for pushing students to "aim higher." When Jason Brown took his shot, he aimed for the highest.
Brown graduated from the Wayne State University School of Business in 2010 with a degree in finance. While it came to a successful conclusion, Brown confesses that his college career did not start off smoothly.
When he first enrolled at WSU, the Detroit Public Schools product found himself exposed to material that many of his suburban peers had pretty much mastered in high school.
"At times, it became a competition with suburban kids to show that I could do the same work," Brown said. "When I finally earned my degree, it was at least partly because I wanted to prove to myself – and, I guess, to those kids – that I could see this ‘school thing’ through."
The birth of TheBrownReport
The self-made entrepreneur didn’t go straight through college in four years. Brown began his WSU career as an engineering student, but soon realized that wasn’t his passion. Early success in the markets allowed him to take the time to figure out what he wanted to do next.
"I had made six figures trading in the stock market while I was a college student at Wayne State," Brown said. "And when I took those three years off to figure out what I wanted to do, I thought a lot about how I got that opportunity in the first place."
Thus TheBrownReport.com was born. The Brown Report is Brown’s stock coaching website, in which he provides tips for trading and stock picks to monthly subscribers. The site features YouTube videos, podcasts and blogs.
"I realized that those privileged to have the understanding of how the market works really did not share that information with those less fortunate," he said. "I really felt a call and a passion to teach people about the stock market and how to have money work for them instead of them working so hard for it."
Brown has since launched a second company, Metro Detroit Networking, which provides a space for "entrepreneurs and working professionals to get together." The company hosts networking events in addition to interviewing up-and-coming business people for its Detroit entrepreneur podcast.
