Leap of Faith

As an accounting instructor one of the most difficult concepts to teach in the introductory course is the most basic one, debits and credits.  I’ve sat through quite a few teaching demonstrations and most new instructors struggle with teaching the most basic concept of all.  In addition, most students have difficulty grasping this most basic concept.  Why?  It has everything to do with the students’ willingness to take a leap of faith. 

The concepts of debit and credit are arbitrary – debits on the left, credits on the right.  There is no real explanation – other than hundreds of years ago, someone came up with the concept, businesses have been using it since then and they have no intention on changing it! Students always try to make sense out of debits and credits and, although I am a huge proponent of not memorizing information but understanding it, there is no understanding it!  It’s arbitrary, you just have to believe that debits are on the left and credits are on the right.  That belief requires a huge leap of faith, but this leap of faith provides the foundation upon which accounting is built.  This leap of faith is no different from other areas in your life.  There is some arbitrary concept upon which your lift is built.  But the foundation is not started until you choose to believe. 

Take religion for example, Christianity begins with the arbitrary belief that God exists.  God does not take the time to explain where He came from or why He exists, the Bible simply begins with in the beginning God created.  Without that initial belief, the whole Christian walk is defunct.

Okay, maybe religion is not your thing, let’s try reading and writing.  In order to learn how to read or write, we first begin with the alphabet.  The alphabet is arbitrary.  The letter A looks like the letter A because it was a system that someone developed years ago.  If you don’t believe that the symbol that represents the letter A is the letter A, you’ll have a difficult time communicating with someone else who only knows the English language. This same concept works with Math, Science and almost every other area of life.  So the most difficult part of getting students to learn accounting is encouraging them to take the leap of faith and just believe that these are the basics of the system, without any other rationale. It all begins with a belief, and then our other actions and behaviors follow that belief.  What do you believe?  How does that belief affect everything else you do?  Is that foundational belief shaky or solid?  What leap of faith do you need to kick start your dreams today?