Herman School of Business
The Safety in Math...
You know who loves math and who hates math? People who want to know where they are and where they are headed love math. People who live for emotion and hope, ignoring reality, hate math. Which one are you?
Companies make decisions every day that propel them forward towards the future. Oftentimes it is not to the future they hope for, but the one that the math inevitably takes them. People often decide what to do because it feels good, because it is what they want to do…not because math supports their decision.
Math should be your best friend…because it can give you what you want. Anything you feel you should have has a formula in mathematics to get you there. Math even tells you when you can’t do what you want to do. Now, listen, in any endeavor math leaves out the emotion, the extra effort you might make, the sheer “willing it to happen” you add to the reality of your effort…but the math doesn’t lie…it tells you exactly where you are.
I worked with owners who were two million in debt and making one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year in profit. They couldn’t understand why the bank wouldn’t back off and let them be late on payments. When I pointed out that their business owed two hundred thousand per year just in interest payments against the hundred and fifty profit and that they were losing money in reality they squawked. People wanted their loan redone to keep them alive. Why can’t people accept the math? Because they can’t accept the truth!
While math is black and white…it never varies…your life or your business always has gray areas. I am not saying make every decision by math alone…I am saying quit ignoring the math when you make decisions. Make it your friend, not something you deny. Bring the math into the equation that makes up your way of thinking about what to do next. Looking at the math may help you think of a better way of moving forward, or of a new path to follow you had not previously considered.
In the fourth quarter when your team is losing by two touchdowns you change your play calling to fit the fact that the clock is running out. The math of time left helps reshape what you should do. Ignoring the math from this point forward is a mistake you will live to regret unless you are extremely lucky all the time.
Simply put…DO THE MATH.
- Posted: 13 January 2009
- Comments: 0
- Category: Business success
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