I recent­ly expe­ri­enced some major dis­ap­point­ments.  I was inter­est­ed in a posi­tion that required being excel­lent with num­bers.  I did­n’t get it.  I then applied for a grad­u­ate pro­gram in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics to help me with that miss­ing skill set and I did­n’t get that either because I don’t have a quan­ti­ta­tive or pro­gram­ming back­ground, nev­er mind that I have taught myself how to code and am becom­ing more savvy with back-end web devel­op­ing.

Around this same time I read an eye-open­ing arti­cle about a very pow­er­ful, intel­li­gent and busi­ness savvy woman who rec­om­mends that every­one, espe­cial­ly entre­pre­neur­ial women make it a pri­or­i­ty to know math.

Wise peo­ple believe we attract what we think about most.  (Well, isn’t this the truth!)

For the sake of my ego, please allow me to clar­i­fy one thing.  I like and enjoy math.  I’m also not nec­es­sar­i­ly bad at it.  I just haven’t had the “need” to use this side of my brain since, well, since I had to do math in school and since cal­cu­la­tors were invent­ed.

There’s a pos­i­tive side to this sto­ry.  I am now informed, and now you’re informed.  Infor­ma­tion is worth its weight in gold.  I am intel­li­gent, this is true.  I’m also a quick learn­er, this is even more true.  And last­ly, I love a chal­lenge, espe­cial­ly if that chal­lenge is going to make me more mon­ey, more intel­li­gent and more sought after (in the busi­ness world–get your mind out of the gut­ter!  I’m a mar­ried woman! 😉 ).

Know­ing math and being a “num­bers girl” is my new found obses­sion.  I asked the aca­d­e­m­ic advi­sor what I need­ed to do to make sure I increase my chances of get­ting into this pro­gram the next time I try and he gave me a list of class­es to take.  Well, slap my ass and call me Sal­ly! I must share the wealth!

I am a big, huge, sup­port­er of tuto­ri­als.  I watch TED Talks week­ly, and spend 1 hour on tuto­ri­als dai­ly. There are tons of resources out there and the advi­sor game me a new one: EdX.com.  I am advised to take a sta­tis­tics and a Python pro­gram­ming class.  And guess how much it costs?!?!?

It is free, my nin­jas! (You are strong­ly encour­aged to make a small dona­tion, but that’s fair in Amer­i­ca, right?)

I do plan on pay­ing the $50 to get a cer­tifi­cate of com­ple­tion (which I can then add to my resume). Isn’t this the best news you’ve heard all week?  Hon­est­ly, I don’t know what to say except, thank you God and thank you tech­nol­o­gy and thank you to the many orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als who work hard to pro­vide resources for those of us who are obsessed with learn­ing.  You are in my evening prayers.

I can­not wait to share my expe­ri­ence.  Ladies, I love thee!  Thank you for read­ing, thank you for shar­ing my post and thank you for sub­scrib­ing!  Now go prac­tice some math.  Share this with your moth­ers, your daugh­ters and your girl­friends, and nev­er, ever, ever utter the words, “I’m not good at math.”  Don’t do it.  It’s not sexy and most impor­tant­ly, it’s not true.  You can be mag­nif­i­cent at math and every­thing else, you just have to set time aside to become awe­some at it.  Start with 30 min­utes per day.  That’s it!  I’m so hap­py for us I’m hug­ging myself.  🙂