Never odd or even

The balance between numbers, intangibles and chance in your company

The heading of this post is a palindrome. A sentence that can be read the same backwards and forwards. That’s how you should be with your company and its numbers, reading and understanding them from right to left and left to right. But should you get obsessed?

“Numerically speaking, our mere existence in the universe is absurd, you would need thousands of eras of universes for the probability to be greater than nothing.”

So you see. The mathematical probability of our existence as a species is practically zero, but here we are. I find it very insightful in terms of how figures can fail. Numerically speaking, our mere existence in the universe is absurd. You would need thousands of eras of universes for the probability to be greater than nothing. This perfectly reflects the danger of basing everything on numbers.

WHAT ABOUT IN MY COMPANY?

So, what about your company’s data and metrics? Do you obsess over numbers? Do you ignore them? There’s no one answer but I’m wary of anyone who takes it to the extreme either way. The takings are your best friend, you should have data and information, but never, never, never forget that numbers don’t think. You have to be able to think to correct, change, fail, be right, act and improve.

To control and to loosen control. To plan and to set free. The balance between numbers and chance. Try to have a clear view of the numbers, but don’t base all your decisions on them. Sometimes you have to trust your instinct and your team’s instinct. You have to take risks, sometimes without being backed up by the numbers. As a businessperson, you’ll try to minimize risk as far as possible and to control the numbers, but chance and intuition will be part of your professional journey.

In short, my advice is to combine both: chance and numbers, planning and the intangible. Because essentially, things are ‘never odd or even’.