Mrs. Wright was not wrong.

Mrs. Wright was not wrong

Mrs. Wright had those jangly chains attached to her glasses, so they stayed around her neck, and her short hair was dyed jet black.

She was my Year 10 maths teacher at Churchlands Senior High School. She smelt like she was wearing a good Estee Lauder perfume.

“If I am going too fast, class, come and see me before school to go through your work,” Mrs Wright would reiterate every lesson.

In the mornings before the siren, the benches my friends and I hung out on were outside Mrs Wright’s office.

“Have any students come to see me this morning?” I’d hear her ask hopefully as she arrived at the maths department. There never was, and I remember feeling quite disappointed for her. If only one person would have come with some questions, she would have felt so vital and validated.

By then, I was doing very badly at maths myself.

A couple of key concepts had escaped me, and I wasn’t keeping up. Did I take her up on her offer? Of course not. My social standing was hanging by a thread as it was: there was no need go out of my way to cut the thread entirely.

I never got back on track with maths. Yet for a whole year, for around half an hour every day, Mrs Wright was mere metres away, hoping to help a struggling student. For free.

I missed the opportunity to improve. In fact, Mrs. Wright was my last maths teacher, as, discouraged by my poor results, I skipped the subject from then onwards.

Looking back, I now realise how much I missed out on by not taking advantage of the support that was offered to me. Mrs. Wright was there, ready to help, but my reluctance to seek assistance held me back.

In business, this mirrors the opportunities we often overlook by failing to engage with mentors, colleagues, or resources that could accelerate our success.

35 years later, I’ve learned that no one succeeds in isolation. It’s essential to identify and utilise the right resources, whether it’s paying for an external provider, asking for guidance from your team, or tapping into resources within your community. Mrs. Wright’s offer of help, though unheeded, serves as a reminder: we must surround ourselves with people who can help us grow and stay on track.

We invite you to make the most of our expertise in marketing and communications and if we can’t help, we’ll connect you with someone who can.

But do not, under any circumstances, come to me with a maths problem.