I love Seth Godin. I subscribe to his Blog and read it daily. His contribution to the world of thinking is enormous, and I treasure it, in all its many forms. Every once in a while, something he writes particularly catches my fancy and causes me to actually want to respond. I’ve recently had just such an experience.
I am of an age and gender that was told---both directly in a classroom (I can still feel the terrible embarrassment and shame as my sincere attempt at what I thought was higher math was met with ridicule by my very unhelpful/unkind 3rd grade teacher---UGH!) and indirectly by society that girls weren’t good at math. So, I proceeded to fulfill that prophesy and develop a painful math-phobia. To this day numbers scare me---I just don’t trust them, or deal with them.
Despite that, I managed to pass multiplication and fractions in grammar school---YIIIPPPEEEE! I succeeded with Algebra I and II in high school, plus Geometry--- but going beyond that was not for me! When I needed to calculate the dosages of medications in nursing school, I was totally frightened, but managed to figure that out---with a great deal of help from classmates and support from much more accommodating faculty. After all, lives were on the line there! I even passed statistics during my graduate work---which totally amazed me. Just don’t ask me anything about Stat now---it went into short-term memory only long enough for me to need it!
Like most people, I’ve learned to function in the world where numbers are concerned. If I really wanted to, I could manually balance a checkbook. But it’s so much easier to let the bank and automation do it for me, as long as I keep track of what I’m spending---OK, so I keep up my end pretty well. I can manage budgets for projects in business. I use technology to help me as much as I can, without getting crazy with spreadsheets---that feels too much like math again, and it puts me right back in the 3rd grade with that terrible teacher---a place I never like to remember!
So really, anything that has to do with numbers would generally be something I would shy away from---EXCEPT when it comes to analyzing stuff. I love trying to make sense of the numbers so I can put them into a word picture that then makes even more sense to me. I know that numbers pictures can be useful all by themselves, but TO ME it’s the words that hold the greatest power. So even though I fear and shy away from numbers, I’ve figured out how to make peace with them. I guess I’m not interested enough in them to become competent in using them or learning how best to manipulate them or best use analytics---other people are far better at that than I am. But once the picture of the numbers is created, and I can see clearly how the raw numbers created that/those views, I can use my word skills to take it from there.
Now, back to Seth Godin’s Blog about Embracing Your Incompetence (#embraceyourincompetence). I say ABSOLUTELY!!!!! There are many areas where many of us don’t have the “commitment, time or skill to become exceptional.” I, for one, am not the least bit interested in becoming any more skilled with numbers than I am at this moment. But I am deliriously happy to work with others who find numbers and analytics to be their passion. In fact, that kind of collaboration is exceptionally powerful and satisfying! And I’ve discovered that there’s something truly magical that happens when I’m working in that way. Without even realizing it, I come away with just a bit more understanding about how the numbers work; and sometimes my collaborators detect new ways to see how the words augment the numbers picture.
And, for me, it all happens without that awful 3rd grade memory---I remain a competent adult with gifts to offer and skills to share.
I’ll embrace that experience every single day!
(www.sethgodin.com)