© Elliot Essman 2005. All rights reserved.

These pages contain the complete 2005 revised text of Building Yourself, public speaking trainer Elliot Essman's guide to living the successful life.

Elliot Essman Public Speaking Training
Building Yourself Table of Contents
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• Mathematics is the queen of the sciences. Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855)

Let's break down the problem of numbers into parts: what you need to know and what you don't need to know. The fact is, you need to know only a small portion of what is popularly perceived (and feared) as “mathematics” unless you're in a highly technical field. Arithmetic is essential, at as high a practical skill level as possible. A little basic algebra and geometry can also come in handy. You probably studied arithmetic exclusively until the ninth grade or so, when they switched you to conceptual areas of mathematics that proba­bly baffled you. Unless your previous study of higher level mathematics (during puberty no less) inspired you to become a mathematician, scientist or engineer, your teachers would have been wiser to continue to teach you basic math at higher and higher skill levels. Arithmetic has practical applications for you that it lacked when you were twelve. And you can learn it much faster now.

You originally learned to add, subtract, multiply and divide, deal with fractions, percents and decimals. Then the stress on mathematics prevented you from getting the arithmetic practice you needed in real situations. In these real situations you need to be able to do quick calculations. Calculators take care of the number crunching, though you might have to do something on paper or in your head now and then. What you need to know is what you're doing with the numbers.

The area of investments is a prime example. A stock will have a price/earnings ratio, for example. No mystery—if there are a million shares of the stock, and the corporation had earnings of two million dollars, it earned two dollars a share. If the stock is selling on the market at nine dollars, you find the price/earning ratio by simply dividing the nine dollars by the two dollars earned per share to get four and a half.

Another useful example: You're thinking of buying a car with your hard earned money. Using some simple calculations (percents and multiplication) you discover that car A, which costs $2,000 more than car B with similar features, will cost $4,000 less over the next five years to operate. The dealer of car B, however, offers financing two percent lower. A third comparable car is available on a lease basis. To complicate matters further, you're not sure you really need a car because you can take the commuter train at X dollars per month and rent cars now and then for weekend trips and such. If you don't invest the money in a car, of course, you can earn money on your capital by investing it elsewhere.

If you develop a certain number‑sense early in life, these choices won't frighten you. Better to have many choices than no choice. You simply break the problem down into manage­able parts, one task at a time, and use your enhanced eighth‑­grade arithmetic on it. If one course of action is more financially feasible, you'll find it.

The two examples above are not taken from an exam, but from real life. Pay a little attention to numbers and they'll pay you back—in dollars and cents. Ignore numbers and you'll be at the mercy of others. You'll pay more for everything from cocktail peanuts to vacation packages. You'll miss critical investment opportunities and misinterpret others. You'll pay too much in taxes and insurance, too much for home im­provement and medical care. Other people who have a command of numbers will pass you by.

Taxes, consumer purchases, sales, investments, mortgages, home construction and improvement, even physical fitness programs, all involve series of arithmetical calculations based on the basic arithmetic you learned in eighth grade. Business and financial math can get a bit more complicated, but published tables and computer programs (with user‑friendly instructions) exist to get these jobs done. As with most practical education subjects, it's easy to find manuals and books to walk you through the critical areas.

In both your business and personal life, but especially if you join the business world, you'll do well to familiarize yourself with the subject matter of accounting. Accounting is the language of business, the process businesspeople use to measure money effectively. Accounting is not a specialty for a few professionals—though accountants themselves are always useful—but a critical area every successful person should learn something about. The subject is not dry if you consider its usefulness and power. If you pass it by, you leave the most important number‑crunching areas to people who might not understand your priorities and needs.