Numbers - aaargh!

This morning I played golf with some friends of mine. They are business partners in a very successful company and most of the on-course talk was about their recent mergers and share deals. Some big numbers were thrown around, but for the most part I didn't understand a damn thing!

I'm a business owner. In fact I own a number of businesses, all of which are successful, but what they were talking about was daunting. Why didn't I understand any of it? Am I missing something?

Later on in the round, when I was a number of shots ahead of everyone it dawned on me. I didn't understand them because I chose a long time ago not to try and understand it. If the time comes, I will hire someone who knows that stuff and they can worry about it. I became flush with pride because I knew that I had chosen to do what I love (crazy-idea start-ups), I had chosen to lead those companies with passion and vision, and I would leave the mind-numbing rubbish to the people like my golfing buddies.

It was a concious choice from years ago that I would leave time in my life for things like golf, which is why I was able to beat them. While they spent their lives crunching numbers, working out interest and exchange rates, and calculating stock depreciation, I was doing what I wanted to do.

Some of the best business owners don't have a clue about the finer details of accounting etc, but they do understand their business goals, their staff, and most importantly their customers. Let the CA's handle the maths - as long as you worry about your customers, the CA's will always have money to count.