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CHAPTER 8
things fall. But at the end of the day, I still get paid. I can still say I told you so if something goes wrong.”
Looking back, I see that “told you so” part is probably not the nicest thing to say. You have to consider people’s egos when you’re doing this type of criti- cism. In the first few meetings, I was with people who had been in the stat- istics department for 20 or 30 years. They would turn to me and ask, “Well, what do you think? What route do you think we should take on this?” I thought, “If you knew how long I’ve been here, you wouldn’t even ask me this question. It was so bizarre.
I once told my supervisor, “I feel I’m the least senior person here. I know I’m the least educated person and shouldn’t be here.” She said, “Scott, you’re the most intelligent person in that room. You are exactly where you need to be.”
Over the last few years, I’ve been focused on this whole idea of the growth mindset. A mindset is like the beliefs, assumptions, and expectancies we have about being able to learn something in our ability. There’s nothing we can’t understand or any skill we cannot develop.
I see this with Toastmasters. I used to think public speaking was a gift. You either had the gene, or you didn’t have it. However, there are specific tech- niques and ways of learning the skill of speaking in public. I stay focused and accurate so that I can understand it.
Now, along with the math, I’ve never been mechanical with my hands; I don’t do woodwork or use tools, and part of that was my mother. “Scott, away from that; we don’t want you injuring yourself and losing a finger or whatever.” I just never learned how to use tools. I believed, up until a few years ago, that I just can’t do work that involves my hands. But now, since I’ve retired, I am saying to myself, “What is it that I believed in the past I could not do but was wrong about?”
I wondered if anything else I’d been telling myself was the wrong story or as- sumption. In the Canadian government, you must learn how to speak French.
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