This past week, I was in Singapore speaking to accountants about the future of our industry. I never thought I’d be speaking to people in other countries about the firm that I reorganized simply to address the problems I ran into while balancing being a mom and a CPA. The experience made me reflect on how far I’ve come, while enjoying some much-needed downtime at my hotel in the most iconic infinity pool in the world.
Ten years ago, I began a journey of innovation. I had no idea how the changes I was making would impact my firm, my customers and my life.
I started to blog for myself. It helped me gain a sense of clarity about all the crazy changes that were going on around me. My ramblings about what was going on in my life and my firm filled post after post, and were even published in professional accounting magazines (like Accounting Today).
Ideas became became speeches, tweets and two books. Readers became loyal followers, fans and friends.
This week, I impacted accountants who have a culture completely different than mine. From the stage, I encouraged a young woman to jump out of a traditional path if she wasn’t feeling respected. She saw an opportunity and had enough courage to ask a mature woman (me) how to advance her career. You could hear the hope. She had the ability to forge a new personal path to her success. This woman touched me.
Being in Singapore made years of a sometimes hard, sometimes wonderful journey tangible. It’s easy to get caught up in the everyday to-do lists and forget the sacrifices I’ve made to continue on this crazy journey of radicalizing a profession.
I’ve impacted lots of CPAs across the United States, but on that stage in Singapore, I realized that me and my crazy ideas have changed the world. Many established professionals tried to squash my ideas, claiming they were too disruptive or outlandish, even though they now claim them as their own original thoughts.
Despite all the obstacles and uncertainty and backlash, I somehow made it to Singapore and was able to inspire other women who are in the exact same place I was just 15 years ago.
