She was different.

Aloof. Unapproachable. Scary. She wears her hair in a pigtail, on one side only. She has a baritone voice. She’s unforgettable, all right.Even more so because she made me cry.

One day, she asked for a volunteer in class to solve a problem. I raised my hand. I proudly scribbled my solution on the board. I was a diligent student. I completed the homeworks she gave us.

Awaiting for her praise and approval, imagine my shock when she had this dismayed look on her face. I wasn’t prepared for what was to come next, but my heart was already pounding.

She scolded me, in front of everybody. Now remember, I was a 14-yr old girl back then, with the normal insecurities of an adolescent.

How could I forget something so basic? She said I did not convert the numbers, from the English system to the Metric system. By then, I was already feeling so embarassed my eyes were hot with tears starting to fall.

My teacher, Ms. Basas can even get dramatic, pounding her fist on her chest (heart) saying “Masakit dito!” (“It hurts here“). And of course, I took it personally that she probably meant how it hurt her to witness my stupidity. I laugh at it now; it wasn’t funny then.

I learned three valuable lessons that day:

1. Pay attention to details.  I got overly excited with coming up with the answer that I didn’t review and go through the details. Similarly, in 2006-07, before the global financial crisis, I got overly excited over a property investment that could have lost me a lot of money, had I not paid attention to details. I paid attention to the details in numbers. I paid attention to the details of the contract. I paid attention to the details of the property when I inspected it. I paid attention to the details of the property blueprint. I found a difference in the actual build and the blueprint which allowed me to nullify the contract. The developer offered to compensate with what seemed like a huge sum of money, to proceed with the contract. I’ve done my homework and declined. I would have been a casualty of the property market like million others globally, during the crisis. I escaped. Whew!

2. Be aware of the right standard. Knowing the right standard as I learned later in life, goes way beyond numbers and the English and Metric system.Imagine losing a lot of money because you forgot to convert to the right currency when doing transactions. Or missing your flight because you forgot to adjust your watch given the difference in time-zones. You also realised you cannot charge your phone because the darn plug won’t fit in the sockets. We find different standards adopted across a number of different things, especially when we visit a different country. Do you turn the knob to left or right for hot or cold? Is it right-hand or left-hand drive? Do cars immediately stop for a pedestrian in zebra crossings? (Warning to foreigners: not in the Phils). Knowing the right standard can mean life and death. This extends to broader standards of behaviour in various culture. Do you shake hands or hug or hug with a kiss on the cheek? Isn’t that sexual harassment? They were all nice, sweet smile and all, and you thought they meant yes, but you just lost the deal. He shook his head from left to right, was that a yes or a no? It pays to be aware of the right standard.

3. Do the right things right. In physics experiments, sometimes we can reverse engineer the process to get the expected results. Similarly, desired financial results can be achieved whatever it takes: nasty take-overs, unscrupulous accounting, unfair competition, exploitative practices, drastic redundancies, etc. Sometimes, we could obsess about goals, achieve them at all cost at the expense of what we truly value. Ms. Basas was adamant that “the means should justify the end.”

How you get the result matters just as much as the result itself.

Had I the skill then to step out of my self-absorbed state, I would have realised that Ms. Basas was actually compassionate in her own way. She once again said after scolding me, “the means justify the end.” She was actually commending the fact that I got the principles and the formula correct. With the discipline to do the ‘right things’, the ‘right results’ would eventually follow. Ms. Basas may not have been my favorite teacher at that time with her means, but I am a better person for it.

“The means justify the end.” Indeed!

(Reposted from my Blogspirit site)