I will readily admit to anyone that I am a voracious reader. Both fiction and non-fiction. I think being a reader is one of the most important ways to grow. I doubt much of my fiction reading will ever bring much value to the discussion on this site, but I do think some of the non-fiction works I read sometimes will. Even if they are not accounting books, by the strictest definition. So, I want to be sure I share them with you.
One of these such books I completed recently is Jon Acuff’s Start. The tagline might scare you away. Us accountants are generally painted as a very timid, tight laced bunch. So, a book that urges you to “Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average, Do Work That Matters” might cause some of us to cringe a little bit. Once you find out his previous effort was a book called “Quitter”
The Trap of Living the “Average” Life
The basic premise of the book is twofold, as I see it. The first is that Acuff gives a great roadmap at how we progress through our lives, living either an “awesome” life or merely an average one. He then deals with the fear we all face in changing the way we do things. In an average life, the barriers to entry are pretty low. After an initial investment of effort, it is pretty easy to simply coast through life on autopilot. Not surprisingly, this is the path most people take. While Acuff is referring to “life” in a general sense, I think we, as accountants, can easily enough make the connection to a career as it is, in a sense, a life of its own. How many of us see this in some of our colleagues? Do you even see it in yourself perhaps? Career on autopilot. Counting down days to retirement.
I’m sure we’ve all kind of fallen in this trap at some point. However, the key for me was Acuff’s definition of “awesome”. It was one I never really thought through before. For me, “awesome”, or “high performer” if you will, was a direct correlation to effort. More importantly, volume of effort. The high performer, the “awesome”, were the ones who poured into their work at the expense of all other parts of their life. Instead, Acuff draws a picture of awesome that is instead a journey through five stages.
The Five Stages on the Road to Awesome
- Learning – Pretty much speaks for itself. I guess for us, this is our college days, perhaps even our entry level jobs. More or less a fire hose of information being thrown at us. We are simply trying to keep up with it and find our foothold.
- Editing – This is where we start to downselect from the torrent of data thrown at us in the learning stage. We pick a few important things and focus on those. Our “specialties” begin to evolve
- Mastering – This is where we become “really good” at what we do. We rack up the experience and start to be looked at as subject matter experts in those areas we downselected to.
- Harvesting – Here is where the fruits of all that work begin to really pay off. Better job oppotunities with better perks. We start to see recognition from our peers. You have developed outsized networks.
- Guiding – At this point, you wind down and pass your knowledge onto others. Teaching others the lessons from your wisdom is the way you give back.
Once you view your career through this lens, you can start to see how the journey to awesome can easily devolve into average. There are several off ramps we can take on that journey to awesome. One of the more common ones would probably be somewhere between Editing and Mastering. We start to develop some areas of expertise in our Editing stage. Before putting in the hard work to truly master them, it is so easy to simply coast and nestle into our own little niche within an organization. It is totally understandable too. Acuff pins this stage, in a traditional sense, around our 30’s and 40’s. For alot of us, the demands of being a good spouse and/or parent prevent us from really mastering our craft.
Avoiding the Off Ramps to Average
Recognizing this off ramp really put a new spin on what I view as “top performer”. As I mentioned earlier, it is easy to view “top performer” as an effort in blunt force. You need to throw yourself into your career, abandoning family and friends, to put yourself at the top of your game. This isn’t true, at all, when it comes down to it. What it does require though, is an awareness of where you are on this journey and adjusting your actions likewise. Focusing your efforts in the right places. Trying to be at three parts of the journey at once is a recipe for overload. Doing it while being true to yourself and your values is far more important. As an example, if you are still “finding yourself” in the Editing stage, don’t put outsized effort into trying to be a mentor in the Guiding stage. You are doing yourself a disservice as well as the person you are mentoring.
The other big thing I took away from Start is that the lines between these lands are blurring and overlapping in this day and age. They are also condensing. Traditionally, these we rolled through these stages in line with our lives. Learning in our 20′s, editing in our 30′s, etc. The Information Age is really changing the rules. Take me, for instance. I clearly feel like I am making the transition, as an accountant, from the Editing to Mastering stage, at a high level. However I am, without a doubt, in the Learning stage when it comes to setting up me online presence in my capacity as an accountant. The reason this is happening is that the Internet is giving us unprecedented opportunities to learn and hone our crafts outside of the traditional education models. It also lets us “pivot” and learn new skills or expose ourselves to new ideas in a manner that is less costly or time intensive.
Keep Moving Towards Awesome
The thing that really put a smile on my face after reading this excellent book is that this journey to awesome isn’t really age dependent anymore. Depending on where we focus our efforts and leverage the wealth of tools at our disposal, we can move through these lands at different speeds in various aspects of our lives. The key, however, is moving. Movement through these lands, as opposed to simply existing in one is the important aspect of moving towards awesome.
So, take inventory today on where you are in these lands with respect to your career (and life!). Be honest with yourself. It will really give you a better idea on how you can be “awesome” by focusing your efforts on the things that are important to where you are at now. Pick up the book and give it a read. I think it may really change the way you look at things.
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