What you put into life and work matters, even more so, I have personally found, when it comes to making connections and growing my business. So for me, my currency is trust, and my investment is in authenticity.
Now, I’m not here to say what yours should be; far be it from me to “should” all over your life. But in my experience, and from my lens on the accounting world overall, I have seen how important it is to come at every day, every situation, as authentically as you can be.
Maybe your currency is different; no judgment here. But what you invest in in terms of your time, your focus, and what you value most will ultimately give you that thing you put into the world. That currency.
Why is this so important? Let’s go back a bit. A few years ago, I got to sit in a keynote session given by the inimitable Jina Ettiene, CPA, who explained to a room full of accountants why it was so important to show up every day as your authentic self. Moreover, “authenticity sells.”
Her words and their meaning stuck with me, especially when, just months later, I found myself without full-time employment and questioning my own direction. And the more I thought about my own next steps and how it could happen, the clearer it became that the value of me is in who I know and what I know.
Even more than that, and I’d say of greater value, is in showing who I am each and every day. Sure, I rise to greet the day with doubt and questions of self-worth. It is that humanity that humbles us, but also — in my view — the thing that tells us we’re doing it right.
If you didn’t feel, if you didn’t care, you would not likely have chosen such a personal profession like accounting. That’s right, accounting is a people-centric profession, one that requires you to deal with other humans and their often personal situations. It also requires you to care.
In many cases, you hold other people’s hopes, dreams, and financial futures in your hands. So why wouldn’t you be the most authentic you can be? After all, while they may have chosen you out of a need, beyond the transactional relationship is real connection, and that is the reason they will stay with you for years.
In short, the true value of who you are is in what you put out into the world every day. Make the investment in authenticity, and you will see the return many-fold.
From a practical standpoint, accounting is changing in meaning and in purpose. Client expectations are increasingly leaning on what they are getting from you, from the relationship they have. And, in business terms, the more value they see in you and from you, the more they will spend and the longer they will stay.
So, what is your currency, and how are you investing to increase its value?