The most well-known myth in the art industry is that numbers are an artist's worst nightmare.
True to the book, when someone asks me about marketing costs, supply, demand and surplus, my brain instantly turns into a giant mush. But let's face it. To be able to succeed in the "real world", we have to conquer our fears, and in my case and in many others', it is a severe case of numerophobia.
Last Thursday I was sitting at Kapisanan's Managing Your Finance workshop thinking, "How am I going to pass the next three hours without falling asleep?"
But Rhowena Adolfo came to my rescue.
As a seasoned financial planner who has written for four newspapers and appeared in both television and radio, Adolfo sure knows her stuff.
Though targeted to young entrepreneurs, the workshop imparted valuable knowledge to those like me who are still in university and just on the verge of starting our careers. It gave me a feel of what to expect in the future and what I should do to conquer all these monetary issues such as budgeting, balancing monthly expenses and managing your taxes.
We can't just approach our future haphazardly, if we want to succeed. Instead, Adolfo encouraged us to have a clear idea of what we want to achieve and how to reach it. Or else, we will be in danger of wasting time, and like any aspiring professional, we are not foreign to the concept that time is money. Lastly, we should always remember that no goal is ever too big because our abilities are only as great as we believe them to be.
And what better way to learn than from a professional instead of reading it from a book, or worse, searching for answers online. After all, like Adolfo said, "Nothing beats field experience."
So bring on the balance sheets, because armed with my new knowledge of business, I can take on anything.