I received some of my best advice on life from a math teacher, and I believe the shortage of good math, science, and engineering teachers is a big part of the reason our society is so screwed up today.

What was the advice? Show your work. In math when you tried to take a shortcut, you always ended up making a careless mistake that led you to a wrong answer. The worst part, when you didn’t show your work you couldn’t even retrace your steps to find out where the mistake was made and you never knew how close you were to understanding how to solve the problem.

Life is the same way. When you take a shortcut, you make a careless mistake and end up with bad results. Somewhere along the way you get lost and don’t know how to get back on track. Because you’re looking for the quick answer you miss out on the opportunity to gain the knowledge of diligently taking the steps to get to where you’re going.

What did the good math teachers teach me about life? They taught me to show my work, be patient enough to work through the problem, believe you can do it, and don’t take any shortcuts if you want to maximize your outcomes. ~ Sean King