How a copy machine taught me to know my value
- Eden
- Mar 16
- 3 min read
In honor of 🏀 March Madness 🏀 here is an inspirational sportsball story:
Scene: It's May 2019 and young Eden is sitting in the CHI Arena in Omaha, about to graduate with two master's degrees. Kyle Korver comes onstage to give the commencement address. The crowd is excited.
Eden: (pondering to herself) Who is this guy???
Among other inspiring advice for new grads, Kyle tells his story of getting drafted into the NBA. Kyle was thrilled to be drafted (the 51st pick out of 60) only to be disappointed when he was quickly traded/sold to another team. The original team used the money from selling him for league fees and a new copy machine.
Kyle: "What's your trade value? Mine was apparently a copy machine! It's okay. A few years back, that copy machine broke... and I'm still playing."
Eden: Why am I crying about basketball?!?!?
Kyle's new team included Allen Iverson, who mentored him as a new player in the league, always encouraging him to shoot his shot with "SHOOTERS SHOOT THE BALL!"
I wasn't expecting to find common ground around knowing your value and setbacks becoming setforwards with a basketball pro that day. I openly roll my eyes at sports and was admittedly close-minded to anything a sports star had to say. (#HotTake our culture needs equal emphasis on the arts!) But Kyle got through to me with a relatable message and advice for my next chapter.
I think about that quote about the copy machine a lot. It was very relevant to my life in 2019 and it's remained relevant to my life in the 5 years since. It's my Roman Empire. One of the lessons I am meant to learn in this lifetime and help others learn is knowing your value and being confident in it. (I've learned it again and again in many ways, time for the lessons to stop now...)
Three months ago, my data scientist role was eliminated. What was my trade value? I don't know what the company did with the money they saved not paying my salary or my bonus or my benefits or my other perks... but whatever they did, either literally and/or metaphorically, it'll break and I'll still be doing data. And all of the other epic stuff that I do.
Kyle's advice from Allen makes me think about the people and companies that call themselves data-driven, innovators, contrarians, change agents, and other self-aggrandizing buzzwords. 🙄 If you need to call yourself these things, you probably aren't. Data-driven people use data. Innovators innovate. Change agents change. They boldly do it for the love of the game (or craft), even if there's a chance of failure -- NOT for accolades and recognition, not for website or social media content and copy, and certainly not as a flashy buzzword to try and impress. The people doing the best work are doing it through quiet, humble, hard work. They don't need to self-label and self-promote because they are already doing it, doing it well, and others are noticing.
Yes, you absolutely must champion your successes (something I am also very passionate and vocal about!) but you have to have evidence to back it up.
You are "data-driven?" Tell me what advanced data science work you are doing in what architecture and how the results are used to make business decisions.
You are an "innovator?" Show something you were the first to do or invented.
You "change and move fast?" Explain how you are leading that change and not chasing shiny objects or trying to keep up with industry Joneses.
Going back to "shooters shoot the ball" we know that not every shot will go in the basket, but we can see them in the arena shooting and know they are a shooter.
I've had a lot of twists and turns in my career so far, but one thing has remained constant: I know the value I bring to a data career and I am unafraid to keep doing data things. How can you know your value and shoot your ball today?
The copy machine story starts at 10:42 in this video.
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