doreenOne night I was up late, thinking about Excel, data and the many conversations around the different tools that we use to get our data to tell us something useful. But I was reminded of many years ago and why I have remained so passionate about data: it’s the rewarding feeling of making someone’s life easier.

This 8-minute reflection paints the mosaic of working in an international company, realizing that an ongoing source of trouble was obsolete reports and poor data quality. And in the face of that, the obvious solutions were too costly. But what had me keep pushing for a solution wasn’t because I loved dashboards, Excel or BI.

The motivation was simple: keep Doreen happy.

During the phone call when she described me as a friend, that’s when I knew I had been successful. Excel happened to be the most appropriate tool because it was nimble enough to navigate through the mystery and help create a sustainable solution.

Please. Check out the video. Does any of this connect with you or your interest in data? It’d be great to read your comments in the comments section.