Is life like a business?

Today we have a guest who will be visiting our class to speak about what it was like for him to purchase a magazine. My professor, Sandy, has given us a bunch of overview business sheets to look at it in order to prepare.

While I don't understand most of the business-jargon, I will say this: Life begins to look like a business once you've read over some of the principles Sandy sent us.

Life probably looks like a business because our lives are surrounded by business.

Even the way I conduct some of my finances (ahem, or try to...) looks like a business.

"A balance sheet reports what a business owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities) and what remains for the owners (equity) as of a certain date. This equation must always be in balance. Always keep in mind the teeter totter  illustration shown above." 

When I try to organize my bills and my finances, I set up a spreadsheet and hope everything balances out in the end. Is it the same? Of course not. A business must be exact, precise, and functioning. My finances spreadsheets can be a little bit more slack since they will never be published or used for anything. 

Oh, and if you say something like this to me: 

Equity = Assets - Liabilities

This is my face:

But a business person will understand what those words actually mean. So even though life is surrounded by business, I am so thrilled that there are smarter people out there than me who can translate those principles into the working world.