If you can't measure it, you can't manage it...

On January 7, 2021, a CNN headline shook the entirety of the media. Space aficionado Elon Musk clung to the first position among the wealthiest individuals on the planet, dethroning J. Bezos. It was undeniably not a thing much anticipated because, during early 2020, the net worth positioned him at 35th place. But the rate of growth and its behavior was grasped by the EV giant, measured to be precise, which brought about the change. Although the rating now fluctuates, the Tesla founder has pretty much flashed his might. And the remarkable point of all is the measure of his wealth.

Often said, there's a long way to success. But it's not just about putting efforts in; it's also about ensuring they take you in the right direction. You cannot fatten the cow by weighing it every day. But to escalate, you need a point of reference, a measurement.

There has to be a feedback mechanism for endeavors. Toiling without figuring is just like dropping a nickel in a river; nowhere does it take you. How do you know your child is performing well in high school? With his grades. If you're a student who wishes to crack an entrance test just like JEEs, what will you do? There's a practice of taking mock tests before the actual ones, where you understand where you stand and how much you need to improve, essentially to CHANGE. Think about going to the examination hall without any such feedback that helped you previously. It would be like shooting an arrow in an arbitrary direction, the need being bull's eye.

 

Putting aside a plethora of various units used across the globe mankind's crucial achievement is the ability to measure. In the words of Edwin Hubble, "We measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial." The evaluations of quantities like the speed of light, Boltzmann's constant are the milestone discoveries in modern science. Most astronomical discoveries in the endless ocean of space took place by calculating irregularities in parameters like light intensity, radiations, and many more. With these, we traced the footsteps of the journey of the baby universe. Our aspects of looking towards the sky full of stars changed forever. The ages-old geocentric model of the cosmos got discarded following the estimation of the immensity of celestial bodies. The principles of astronomy have altered; ever since they figured what we call an observable universe. And just due to this integration, we also know it's a speck of dust suspended within the actual universe.

Even if doubts shroud one's mind, ask a nation why the 'counting' counts. The complete system works on surveying. A nation gets transformed when its vital dimensions are known. Developing countries rely on GDP figures to know if their fiscal policy works. For them, this evaluation is not just a report card but also a beacon light for further management. The statistical significance is quite evident through the population census. Based on the assessment of demographics, policies are carved for the upliftment of a region.

Performance and improvement of any company lean on sales. If the sales are high, the demand is understood, hence the quality, design, and other features of a product get reflected in resonance with customer needs. In the other case, the low sales convey the need for transforms for a significant change in figures. Share market analysts feed on the inspections of curves and help clients to land in profits. For your website, you recognize the content is fair when the traffic is high. If not, you work differently and again check the figures. This simple math helps you know what would gather more eyeballs for your website.

In states of uncertainty like a worldwide pandemic, the situation can be well-handled and manipulated back to normal by calibrating the spread pattern. The numbers of daily new cases, deaths, and recoveries provide vital information that is studied using the data models to predict the fatality of the epidemic ahead of time. This greatly assists the healthcare services.

Forget about changing, how can you even tell what you are doing if you can't quantify it! Any experiment serves its purpose with a conclusion, which is made by measuring the observations precisely. Incorrect computations are often the reasons to get into trouble. In an infamous accident of NASA's mars orbiter in 1999, it broke down to pieces due to inaccurate measurements.

During the survival training, the soldiers of the US army learn the depth-sounding technique. Before jumping off the cliff, they drop down a stone to estimate the depth of the base of a waterfall. Harvard connoisseurs advise defining clearly that how one would gauge success in meeting the purpose and the vision. The pioneer of modern business management Peter Drucker states one cannot improve what one cannot measure. One accurate measurement is worth a thousand opinions. There are few things: love, friendship, decency. These cannot be measured, but these also don't need to be defined, forced, changed, not even replaced. These are the fragments that configure one's soul. But for the things you wish to change, recognize them. Those unrecognized things always stay like a not much known black hole, unacknowledged and unchanged. So, here's an easy funda:

"In life what you treasure

Joy and pleasure

It's the simplicity of things,

It depends on how you measure..."

 Written by: Ankush Bhalerao