The Jane Austen Business Plan
The Frugal Duchess has related “10 Smart Career Moves” that she has made in her life to lessons learned from Jane Austen. See, you CAN do a lot with a major in English!
1. In Praise of Typing 101: In high school during the 1970s, typing class represented an academic detour usually reserved for future typing pool candidates of America. I was in the Honors Track, with no intention of joining the Pink Collar Ghetto. But Jane Austen taught me to have a broader mind. Many of her heroines– even the wonderful Elizabeth Bennet — had practical skills. So in a fit of practicality, I tapped into my inner typist during my teen years by enrolling into Personal Typing 101. I didn’t take the class seriously; I underperformed, but I acquired a very marketable skill that I use every day.
The Editrix took typing for TWO years in high school, and all the academic-track students taking calculus looked down on her for it and complained that she was “being lazy” and “getting away with something,” ergo, not working as hard as the others. It should be pointed out that we won a district-wide typing award our senior year, once word about that got out had a tidy side business going typing tests for the teachers, and are now constantly pestered by those who took calculus to show them how to use Word; proving, once again, that learning a skill, whether typing or calculus, is NEVER a bad thing.
December 31st, 2007 at 7:45 am
Thanks so much for the mention!
Belatedly congrats on the typing award.
Take Care,
Sharon
December 31st, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Most excellent and congratulations (belatedly) on the award. I also took typing in high school while the rest were taking calculus or computers. I knew that with this basic skill, I could pick up other essentials far easier when the time was right.
December 31st, 2007 at 3:13 pm
I admit I really only took it because I wanted to learn how to type. Was able to spin it to the guidance counselor because I had to be able to type 40 wpm for admission to journalism program, which I ended up not taking anyway.
January 1st, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I was one of the few men in typing in the early 80’s. I took it in my freshmen year knowing that it was an important business skill. Though, interstingly enough, many of the successful business people I have worked with since… the uber entreprenuers… seem to be VERY FAST hunt-and-peck types using just their index fingers. Go figure. But it helped me in business especially in becoming a published author and developing QuickPlanner Plus, my strategic business planning software.
January 6th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I took typing for two years in junior high school in the mid ’70’s because in our town (Weehawken, New Jersey) it was a required course, no exceptions. No one knew then the pc would take over the world and EVERYONE would need to know how to type. I’m so grateful they taught me a skill I now use every day.