I'm a Bad Economist

I am a bad economist. 

This statement doesn't mean that I am not qualified or capable, I'm just bad... by now I should have been two or three years into a Ph.D. program or at least making a difference by updating spreadsheets at a government agency. That is in fact what prospecting economist do, or I could join half my class at the Central Bank. Or I could have followed in the footsteps of many who chose to remain in the classroom. I was at least a half decent tutor and an adequate lecturer, who appeared to give a damn about his students and how they received and interpreted the information. But I don't know how much longer I could deal with uninterested students. Also, school politics, when the head of the department can't stand you because you believe in inclusive education and research and you don't have a permanent contract that's probably a sign that it's not for you right now.   

This bad economist decided to go corporate because of at least what I thought I could learn, and although I have learned quite a bit, I still find myself bored. Bored with the fact that the most used applications are Word and Excel, the research is mediocre at best, and nobody knows how to do a proper forecast.  But there is a lot of money to be made, none of which hits my bank account on a monthly basis. While I get paid more than what the government positions would have paid me my salary is grossly inadequate. 

I'm a bad economist because I haven't published a simple paper, now this is partly due to opportunity and interest. The articles I'm interested in writing I have no time to write and the ones that I can write easily I have no interest to write. Plus the last time I wrote a paper I was interested in, the same HOD turned it down for departmental support to a conference.  

I'm also a bad economist because I don't have a newspaper column, or do radio interviews and have never been on television talking to the country about how the economy is doing. 

So with all the essential societal indicators of a being a good economist I probably receive a failing grade. But am I really a bad economist? 

I am an independent critical thinker, I'm unconventional in both my thought process and my approach. The big picture is more important than the nitty-gritty. People listen to me when I actually open my mouth to talk. I actually want to learn more about my field. I believe my degrees are grossly inadequate. But by schools standards, I was a good student. 

So Now I just have to find a way to utilize my bad behavior to become the best economist the world has seen in a while. Only one other person from the Caribbean has won a Nobel Prize in Economics, and he wasn't Jamaican, and he won because he thought differently. 

There is nothing wrong with being bad by the standards of society because it's the bad, disruptive and crazy people who make the most significant difference in the long run.