Pain by Numbers

I attended an excellent training course last week at Cranfield University called 'Finance for Business Managers'. The intent of the course was to take general business folk like me and torture our minds with numbers until we come out the other end sounding intelligent and wearing gray suits with pens in the breast pocket.

Maybe not quite.

For five long days I learned all about income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, EPS, PE ratios, EBITDA, stock prices, company evaluations, discounted cash flows, NPV analysis.... stop, stop, it's too painful to live through it again.

I know why I didn't become an accountant, and it wasn't because of the gray suits. I find numbers tough, and especially business finance. But it's important I get better if I ever hope to progress. This course was excellent, and it even taught a number-dud like me a lot. Dare I say that I actually half-understand these concepts now. I'm even applying what I learned to my job. Weird, I know.

But it was still pain by numbers.

Image from here.