Philosophy of Business and Statistical Mathematics The most common asked question about mathematics is “Where can I use this in real life?” The answer is everywhere. There are a multitude of careers where mathematics use is necessary, and maybe none more than the fields of business and statistics. As an aspiring statistician/actuary, I have always been fascinated with the study of applied statistics, especially in sports, or the more business-like settings, for example, the stock market. I started investing in stocks and options at the age of 11, the amount of analytical data and stats that go into making investments and seeing dips or rises in the stock market is incredible. Every day, I’d notice the change in the market, looking at the average price of a share go up, looking at the distributions of the changes, and seeing the average changes in the market. As I got more interested in statistics, and my knowledge became more advanced, I was able to determine the kinds of distribution the numbers showed, (mostly normal distributions, and standard bell curves) figure out the standard deviations, and also predict how the market would change from day to day. However the statistical and business side that involves math in sports is more fascinating to me. The world of sports now is so much more advanced in statistics than it has ever been. There are stats like PER, passer ratings, and WAR, that are all gathered by attaining data based on a player’s performance, and comparing their numbers to the average, to determine if their numbers are better or worse. Some people say that these types of advanced statistics make the game harder to follow. In reality business men flock to these kinds of jobs, because it’s their job to look at and gather the data for these sports leagues like the NFL, MLB, NBA, etc. and it is there job to figure out PER (player efficiency rating) and WAR (wins above replacement) based off of the stats found by watching and researching sports games. What can be better than getting paid as business man to write stats on sports that most fans listen to and read every day? It’s my dream to have a job like that, although being a coach, and a keeper of stats for a high school football team, I use my passions and knowledge of both statistics and football in one. I, at the end of each week, gather the total yards for the team and players, and make an average yards per play for all of them, I use their numbers that I found to compare them to our rivals in the league. It gives my players a goal to strive for a beat, my data gathering gives them an extra push and makes them more competitive. Even though my love of data and numbers leans more to a statistician or stockbroker, being a coach helps me learn how to teach, and could open up the possibly of being a teacher down the line. It’s a great time to be a math major for someone like me, because of my love and passion for sports. With all professional sports hiring more people to calculate these advanced stats, and with the interest in these stats only growing, it gives someone with the knowledge of math and stats, to pursue a field in it, while doing it for a company I love and have some much interest in.