let’s start our time together today with
a little exercise who here is bad at
something raise your hand no shame okay
if you’re here with someone you know
point to them if you think they know
you’re bad at that thing and if you’re
by yourself you can just point to me if
you think other people know that you’re
bad at it go ahead again no shame
there’s some shame out there but let’s
instead just give ourselves a round of
applause because we also and apparently
other people know it it’s okay I’m
actually really glad to know that I’m
not alone full disclosure I am generally
one of those really annoying
overachievers but there’s something I’ve
always been really bad at math it all
started with a pencil case I was ten and
I had some pretty pressing priorities in
my life like finally beating the boss in
Sonic the Hedgehog and tuning our
antenna so I could get in that latest
episode of goosebumps somehow I was also
expected to learn how to multiply
luckily I had this pencil case that I
could turn and it would show me the
times tables for each number I’d done
all of them except for eight which I’m
pretty sure everyone knows is the
hardest but I just couldn’t put it off
any longer so I turned my pencil case to
eight let’s do this but instead of
digging in I started to barter with
myself listen Emily you know all of the
other times tables which technically
means you know eight plus eight is
really just two of the four times table
which was an easy one so we’re probably
good here and so I put the pencil case
down and decided not to learn it and I
think that this is where why weird
complex with math star
my next run-in with the math monster was
6th grade geometry test c-plus I can’t
tell you exactly how the classroom exit
played out but I definitely remember
crying in the last bathroom stall
staring at my page c-plus what was I
going to do my overachieving self
assumed that this was the end of my
academic career that it was all just
downhill from there
but then another idea came to my mind
what if I was just bad at math I mean
I’d never gotten a c-plus in any other
subject before and that’s what I told my
parents and that’s what I told myself so
it began my life of being bad at math by
11th grade math actually got pretty
tough I think I studied more for that
class and I have anything in my entire
life and I still only ended up with a 69
to this day my mom will tell you it was
my hardest earned grade to this day I
will tell you that in math terms there
was a direct correlation between the
number of hours I studied for that class
and the number of times I’ve through my
textbook against the wall this is my
high school transcript that 69 is as in
a sea of 80s and 90s and although I’m
more proud of that grade than any other
up there it cemented the fact that I
just could not do math no matter how
hard I studied no matter how hard I
tried I would never be good at math and
it made sense to me I was a right brain
person it was good at drama and English
of course I couldn’t also be good at
math everyone knows you’re either mathy
or you’re artsy nobody gets to be both
plus I wanted to help people
and I was pretty sure you didn’t need to
be a mathematician to change the world I
vowed never to take another math class
again liberated without the chains of
math I loved my university degree and
managed to score myself a full ride
scholarship to an MBA there was one
condition I had to pass a standardized
test it had a math section looking at
your grades you’ll ace it in three weeks
the program director told me easy I
thought and then I opened the study
guide triangles graphs letters
masquerading as numbers all of those
math e things I knew that I couldn’t do
fast forward those three weeks and then
another three because I was in no way
we’re ready like the program director
thought I take the test I bomb it and I
mean bomb not like a C+ and crying it
off in the little girl’s room
I mean bombed like a 10th percentile
score looking up how to become an au
pair in Germany because I’m pretty sure
I have no future bombed true story I
managed to talk my way into the program
without it but I had to be on academic
probation pretty humbling for what I’m
sure you’re now thinking of as an ex
overachiever in the program math reared
its ugly head again I made it through
Finance and Accounting with the help of
my tutor and now spouse of seven years
Matt but I could not do stats I actually
went to talk to my stats professor for
some help and he told me that I should
just drop out of the program because
there was no way I would ever pass much
less be successful in business somehow I
made it through and well the math was a
challenge for me it’s like it opened
this completely different side of me
something I never knew existed I learned
that I was amazing at using
to solve practical problems something
some people who were good at math seem
to struggle with it was like once the
math became more than just numbers on a
page once it started to mean something
to me it just kind of clicked I remember
we were working on a client project and
we are trying to prove if one of our
recommendations was correct and I said
well let’s just take this data point in
this data point and we’ll run a
regression to see if we’re right excuse
me I couldn’t believe the words coming
out of my mouth I knew what her
regression was and how to run one but
the major turning point for me was when
another student came up to me after a
presentation and said you’re a great
presenter and you’re really creative too
bad you’re so bad at math and for the
first time I got mad I wasn’t bad at
math sure it wasn’t my natural strengths
but I definitely wasn’t bad at it it’s
like I finally got sick of this box that
I put myself in in a world goes full
circle ain’t karma hilarious twist my
first job after graduating was in market
research witches stats I spent hours
poring over data tables finding
statistically significant data points
and making recommendations to big
corporate brands I did this using math
in just two years
I went from someone who couldn’t do math
to a complete data nerd a 24 I became
the president in part owner of an
international tech company that helps
nonprofits measure hunger and poverty
whether it’s helping one of our clients
put together a report or defining some
new analytic for our platform or doing
financial analysis I now use math every
day of my
life and it’s helped our company impact
over 1.7 million people living in
poverty a guess math can help you on
your quest to change the world but even
though math has given me a life I never
could have dreamed of when I put that
pencil case down 20 years ago it’s not
the math that matters what matters is
realizing that something I thought about
myself for most of my life was wrong
what matters is realizing that I had
written a story and said it out loud so
many times that it actually started to
come true
what matters is deciding it was time to
make some edits the truth is we grow and
we change we shouldn’t be the person we
were at 10 or at least we don’t have to
be if we don’t want to life puts us in
situations that challenges us and forces
us to go out of our comfort zone
questioning who we are in those moments
is how we fall into ourselves but if we
keep telling ourselves these same old
stories if we keep prescribing two
convenient labels like right brain and
left brain that’s how we miss out on
getting what the world has to offer so
let’s try this again this time close
your eyes think of one of these stories
you tell yourself with eyes closed raise
your hand when you’ve got one now point
to the writer and narrator of that story
and now give yourselves a round of
applause because you just took the first
step toward rewriting it
[Applause]
a little exercise who here is bad at
something raise your hand no shame okay
if you’re here with someone you know
point to them if you think they know
you’re bad at that thing and if you’re
by yourself you can just point to me if
you think other people know that you’re
bad at it go ahead again no shame
there’s some shame out there but let’s
instead just give ourselves a round of
applause because we also and apparently
other people know it it’s okay I’m
actually really glad to know that I’m
not alone full disclosure I am generally
one of those really annoying
overachievers but there’s something I’ve
always been really bad at math it all
started with a pencil case I was ten and
I had some pretty pressing priorities in
my life like finally beating the boss in
Sonic the Hedgehog and tuning our
antenna so I could get in that latest
episode of goosebumps somehow I was also
expected to learn how to multiply
luckily I had this pencil case that I
could turn and it would show me the
times tables for each number I’d done
all of them except for eight which I’m
pretty sure everyone knows is the
hardest but I just couldn’t put it off
any longer so I turned my pencil case to
eight let’s do this but instead of
digging in I started to barter with
myself listen Emily you know all of the
other times tables which technically
means you know eight plus eight is
really just two of the four times table
which was an easy one so we’re probably
good here and so I put the pencil case
down and decided not to learn it and I
think that this is where why weird
complex with math star
my next run-in with the math monster was
6th grade geometry test c-plus I can’t
tell you exactly how the classroom exit
played out but I definitely remember
crying in the last bathroom stall
staring at my page c-plus what was I
going to do my overachieving self
assumed that this was the end of my
academic career that it was all just
downhill from there
but then another idea came to my mind
what if I was just bad at math I mean
I’d never gotten a c-plus in any other
subject before and that’s what I told my
parents and that’s what I told myself so
it began my life of being bad at math by
11th grade math actually got pretty
tough I think I studied more for that
class and I have anything in my entire
life and I still only ended up with a 69
to this day my mom will tell you it was
my hardest earned grade to this day I
will tell you that in math terms there
was a direct correlation between the
number of hours I studied for that class
and the number of times I’ve through my
textbook against the wall this is my
high school transcript that 69 is as in
a sea of 80s and 90s and although I’m
more proud of that grade than any other
up there it cemented the fact that I
just could not do math no matter how
hard I studied no matter how hard I
tried I would never be good at math and
it made sense to me I was a right brain
person it was good at drama and English
of course I couldn’t also be good at
math everyone knows you’re either mathy
or you’re artsy nobody gets to be both
plus I wanted to help people
and I was pretty sure you didn’t need to
be a mathematician to change the world I
vowed never to take another math class
again liberated without the chains of
math I loved my university degree and
managed to score myself a full ride
scholarship to an MBA there was one
condition I had to pass a standardized
test it had a math section looking at
your grades you’ll ace it in three weeks
the program director told me easy I
thought and then I opened the study
guide triangles graphs letters
masquerading as numbers all of those
math e things I knew that I couldn’t do
fast forward those three weeks and then
another three because I was in no way
we’re ready like the program director
thought I take the test I bomb it and I
mean bomb not like a C+ and crying it
off in the little girl’s room
I mean bombed like a 10th percentile
score looking up how to become an au
pair in Germany because I’m pretty sure
I have no future bombed true story I
managed to talk my way into the program
without it but I had to be on academic
probation pretty humbling for what I’m
sure you’re now thinking of as an ex
overachiever in the program math reared
its ugly head again I made it through
Finance and Accounting with the help of
my tutor and now spouse of seven years
Matt but I could not do stats I actually
went to talk to my stats professor for
some help and he told me that I should
just drop out of the program because
there was no way I would ever pass much
less be successful in business somehow I
made it through and well the math was a
challenge for me it’s like it opened
this completely different side of me
something I never knew existed I learned
that I was amazing at using
to solve practical problems something
some people who were good at math seem
to struggle with it was like once the
math became more than just numbers on a
page once it started to mean something
to me it just kind of clicked I remember
we were working on a client project and
we are trying to prove if one of our
recommendations was correct and I said
well let’s just take this data point in
this data point and we’ll run a
regression to see if we’re right excuse
me I couldn’t believe the words coming
out of my mouth I knew what her
regression was and how to run one but
the major turning point for me was when
another student came up to me after a
presentation and said you’re a great
presenter and you’re really creative too
bad you’re so bad at math and for the
first time I got mad I wasn’t bad at
math sure it wasn’t my natural strengths
but I definitely wasn’t bad at it it’s
like I finally got sick of this box that
I put myself in in a world goes full
circle ain’t karma hilarious twist my
first job after graduating was in market
research witches stats I spent hours
poring over data tables finding
statistically significant data points
and making recommendations to big
corporate brands I did this using math
in just two years
I went from someone who couldn’t do math
to a complete data nerd a 24 I became
the president in part owner of an
international tech company that helps
nonprofits measure hunger and poverty
whether it’s helping one of our clients
put together a report or defining some
new analytic for our platform or doing
financial analysis I now use math every
day of my
life and it’s helped our company impact
over 1.7 million people living in
poverty a guess math can help you on
your quest to change the world but even
though math has given me a life I never
could have dreamed of when I put that
pencil case down 20 years ago it’s not
the math that matters what matters is
realizing that something I thought about
myself for most of my life was wrong
what matters is realizing that I had
written a story and said it out loud so
many times that it actually started to
come true
what matters is deciding it was time to
make some edits the truth is we grow and
we change we shouldn’t be the person we
were at 10 or at least we don’t have to
be if we don’t want to life puts us in
situations that challenges us and forces
us to go out of our comfort zone
questioning who we are in those moments
is how we fall into ourselves but if we
keep telling ourselves these same old
stories if we keep prescribing two
convenient labels like right brain and
left brain that’s how we miss out on
getting what the world has to offer so
let’s try this again this time close
your eyes think of one of these stories
you tell yourself with eyes closed raise
your hand when you’ve got one now point
to the writer and narrator of that story
and now give yourselves a round of
applause because you just took the first
step toward rewriting it
[Applause]
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