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How to use the power of “WHY” to achieve what you want

as a data scientist

as a data scientist

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Becoming a data scientist is hard.

Becoming a great data scientist is even harder.

And by being a great data scientist I mean having the passion and belief in what you do as well as the capability to solve problems with data that drives action.

Now… What do I mean by that?

Data Science Explained
Data Science Explained

You see. Solving problems with data is easy if you have good understanding of business domain, technical capabilities (coding, math, stats etc.) and collaboration with your colleagues.

Anyone can solve a problem as long as they have the skills to know what to do and how to do it.

However, I believe there are two important elements that are needed to seriously become a great data scientist to achieve what you want.

By the end of this article, I hope you’ll understand the importance of having "WHY" and how to use the power of "WHY" to become a great data scientist to achieve what you want, be it as work or in life.

Let’s get started!


1. Have passion and believe in what you do

Data Science path is not easy.

If you’re a data scientist reading this now. You’ll know what I mean.

It’s tough. It’s an ever-changing field. It’s dynamic. It’s moving fast.

In other words, you need learn fast and adapt quickly to keep up-to-date with the latest trend and technology being used in the industry.

The tool or language that you’re using now may be obsolete in the next few weeks, or months.

If you don’t have a passion for what you’re doing, how can you make sure you can stay the course to keep Learning and improving as a data scientist?

Even worse, if you don’t even believe in what you’re doing, chances are you won’t stay long in this field.

It might sound a little bit harsh, but it’s quite true.

In other words, it all boils down to one question, "WHY do you do what you do?"

Period.

If you don’t know why you do what you do at the first place, you won’t have the Motivation to wake up every single morning to do what it is that you love.

You won’t have the motivation keep grinding when things get tough throughout your journey as a data scientist.

To me, my "WHY" is simple.

I want to make data science accessible to everyone.

This is what I’m passionate about.

This is what I believe in.

This is what I do, as a data scientist.

Now the question to you is, "What’s your WHY?"

Let me know in the comment below. 😊

2. Driving action with your "WHY"

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

  • Simon Sinek

If you haven’t watched this TED talk delivered by Simon Sinek, just watch it.

You’ll know why it’s important in seconds later.

So why is driving action important to us as a data scientist?

You see.

Imagine you’re very good at building machine learning models with high prediction accuracy.

Cool. You’re doing a great job.

Here comes the day when you need to present your prediction results to your boss and other stakeholders.

You show the model’s fantastic prediction accuracy up to 95% and that’s superb.

Now your boss who’s sitting across the table asks this question, "The result is great. So what can we do next with the result?"

You’re stunned.

You thought you just solved a problem, but you forgot to answer the core question of the problem.

As a data scientist, I believe that we always need to provide actionable insights instead of just showing results.

And by actionable insights, I mean to convince people with the results and recommend the next steps based on the results. Most importantly, we need to tell people "WHY" the results and recommended steps are crucial.

Because chances are that people tend to follow what you do when you tell them the reasons.

And this is how you can drive action by convincing your stakeholders through telling the "WHY".


Final Thoughts

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Thank you for reading.

This topic is something that I’ve been wanting to share about.

I hope by now you’ve gained a better understanding of the importance of having "WHY" and how to use that to become a great data scientist to achieve what you want, be it as work or in life.

At the end of the day, knowing the "WHY" is what engages people (including yourself) on a deeper level that motivates what people do.

As always, if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave your feedback below or you can always reach me on my website or LinkedIn. Till then, see you in the next post! 😄


About the Author

Admond Lee is currently the Co-Founder/CTO of Staq the #1 business banking API platform for Southeast Asia.

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Admond Lee


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