Regardless of our chosen profession, most of us work with Numbers, Facts, Words, and Hands.

You’ve probably never thought about it. I certainly hadn’t, until I was talking with my 13-year-old grandson, Gideon, trying to convince him to elevate the quality of books he reads. 

Gideon is an exceptional storyteller and a surprisingly good actor for his age. Based on his natural proclivities, I am convinced Gideon will someday make his money with words. 

There are hundreds of ways to do it.

I was about to list the careers that depend primarily on a practitioner’s capacity to choose and use precisely the right words when it hit me: every endeavor requires the use of numbers, facts, words, and hands.

Career choices fall into one of those four camps.

Numbers. Facts. Words. Hands.

Arrange those four in the order you prefer to use them. 

Your order of preference may not correspond with the order of your competence, but it usually does. We get better at the things we prefer, especially when we focus on them.

Let’s look at the careers where the language of Numbers stands on tiptoe and shouts “Look at me!”

Data scientist, structural engineer, statistician, bookkeeper/accountant/CPA, insurance company actuarial, theoretical physicist, astrophysicist, (pretty much any kind of physicist,) and the list goes on.

And in which politesse is the finesse of finicky Facts essential to success?

Teacher, lawyer, doctor, policeman, consultant, inventor, and the list goes on.

And what pursuits depend on your ability to muster and master Words that tickle the intellect and elevate the ears?

Stand-up comedian, ad writer, politician, broadcaster, podcaster, online influencer, reporter, novelist, screenwriter, lyricist, and the list goes on.

You didn’t know lyricist could be a career? Bernie Taupin has made more than seventy million dollars writing lyrics for Elton John. 

Bernie doesn’t write the music. Just the words.

Now let’s look at the careers that harness the Hands.

Carpenter, plumber, artist, musician, masseuse, electrician, manufacturing technician, butcher, baker, candlestick maker. And the list goes on.

No career relies on the use of a single category exclusively, but when you look at a career from a distance, it is easy to see that one of those four is used more often than the other three.

I have no idea how you might use this information, but I felt it was an observation worth sharing.

One final thought: I have known a lot of people who followed the advice of their guidance counselor and chose a career based on how they scored on a standardized test. 

Tom was one of those people. Twenty-five years ago, he said,

“I scored high on math skills so they convinced me to major in math in college. I graduated and got a job with a bank and was very successful but not happy. Then one day I realized that I hated math and had always hated math and was an idiot for listening to my guidance counselor.”

Tom left banking to become an ad writer and became even more successful than he had been as a banker.

And Tom was a lot happier, as well.

If you took a moment to arrange Numbers, Facts, Words, and Hands in the order of your preference, [email protected] would like you to share your list with him, along with anything else you would like to add.

I told him you said aroo.

He says aroo to you, too.

Roy H. Williams

Companies are pouring big money into programs that teach “soft skills,” such as employee training, human resources, community outreach, and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.) But do they get their money’s worth?Jack and Patti Phillips developed a method for determining the return on investment for programs like these and it has become the most-used evaluation system in the world, adopted by 27 governments and three-fourths of the FORTUNE 500! Listen as they explain to roving reporter Rotbart how much easier it is to assess these programs than most owners and executives realize. The time is now. The place is MondayMorningRadio.com