[aaronmo]

I thought the next generation might benefit from my wisdom. Errrrrr…

1. Try not to be born during tax season if you expect to work in public.

2. Don’t ever allow yourself to follow/care about college basketball.

3. Practice your paper cut tolerance.

4. Get used to whatever equipment you learned to use in grade – high school being obsolete by your first job, and that you’ll be expected to know everything about what replaced it by everyone in the office who still thinks slide rules are nifty.

5. 5 years later, be prepared to know nothing about anything you use at work, and becoming 100% reliant on a kid who listens to bands you’ve never heard of.

6. Start selling tax services. Now. To your baby sitter.

7. Accept that almost everyone coming to you for advice will be richer than you are. Never question why they’re asking for advice when they’re more successful than you are.

8. Learn to survive for months at a time on ONLY pizza and coffee.

9. Even though you barely know ANYTHING, you’re still the most knowledgeable person in the room.

10. Learn to tell people just enough that they will pay you to hear more, without telling them enough so that they got it for free. Sort of like HBO’s free preview day.

11. Don’t marry a business owner unless they have an accountant.

[Skynet]

12. You can't call Dibs on the Hot Secretary! She's fair game.

[Anonymous]

#7 cracks me up lol

[Adam]

13. Learn to accept the fact that almost everything you learned in school and on the CPA is not applicable to real life.

[Recked]

#14 Don't dip your pen in company ink.

Those are all some great rules.
I'm a golf guy instead of college hoops. I always have the Masters live coverage playing on my third monitor during tax season.
I got a paper cut yesterday, working on a family freebie.
Coffee is the drink of the gods, 6 cups a day is my norm for tax season. Black is beautiful.

[Right Brained Accountant]

15. It is far wiser to answer a question you're unsure of with “I will have to look into that and get back to you” rather than stating a false fact just to look good in the moment. People will respect you for your time, research, and honesty opposed to thinking you're a chump.

[Nate]

16. Before you start the CPA exams, tell everyone goodbye, warn them you will be practically dead to them for a while.

[aaronmo]

^^^

People who actually know what they're doing are typically aware of how complex things are, and are confident enough to NOT know everything. In ANY profession…and the more complex/grey, the more you don't actually know.

A compliment to the above…don't be afraid to re-evaluate a choice and make a different conclusion. Don't be afraid to admit an error, or mistake. Any job with as many judgement calls as we face is going to involve decisions you want back. Better to acknowledge it and own it.

17. A good pencil is worth its weight in gold; I recommend the Uni Kuru Toga Roulette!

18. ALWAYS be nice to support staff…you need them more than they need you (unless you sign the checks).

19. NO FISH IN AN OFFICE. Unless sushi.

[Jim]

This might be busy season talking but…
20. Don't do it!

Aud- 79 Expired retaken November 19th (get score on Dec 8th)
BEC- 81 8/20/2014
REG- 79 7/13/2013
FAR- Jan 9th

[Author]

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