You're Fired!

Late in the summer of 2004, I visited the HR manager at Deloitte to hand-in my laptop, ID badge, and 10-key in order to pursue a career in academia.  Several of my mentors took me out for a going-away dinner at my favorite downtown Minneapolis restaurant: Morton’s Steakhouse.  Throughout the evening, the others told jokes at my expense, and we collectively consumed the better part of a well-fed cow.

At one point, the ever-reflective Kurt asked me, “Boz, what would it take to get you to stay?”  (By the way, if a valued employee of yours ever announces his/her unwelcome resignation and you do not ask them that question, you are making a serious mistake)

I thought about Kurt’s question for a minute and said, “Thirty-hour work weeks.  Summers off.  The ability to spend more time pursuing my true passions of training and mentoring, and less time doing tax work.” 

In essence, I was pursuing better balance in conjunction with increased job satisfaction.  To learn more about that decision, check out this older blog entry:  http://professorboz.blogspot.com/2012/01/easist-decision-of-my-life.html

“But, Boz,” said Kurt, “You can stay at Deloitte and have all of those things.  I am sure there could be a valuable role for you.”

“Well, Kurt,” I replied, “there is one more thing.  I would need the ability to fire clients whom I did not like.”  Kurt sighed and said, “Yeah, that is kind of a deal-breaker.”

You see, in public accounting as in much of the business world, many supervisors and colleagues care more about the amount of revenues that you generate and less about the pain you went through to generate them.

Fast forward to 2012.  Last month I completed my 8^th season of preparing individual tax returns as a side business.  Now that I am in control, I am able to establish the criteria under which I will serve a client.  Periodically, I have decided to stop serving a client, generally because either their situation has become too complex, or because their philosophy does not agree with mine. 

However, the first time I told a client I could no longer serve them, it was tough.  I felt like I was letting them down.  But, I realized that I needed to let the client go so that we will both benefit in the future.  They needed to find an advisor who can better suit their needs and I needed to have more energy and passion for my core client base.

I now realize that eight years ago I did not want to fire any clients.  I simply wanted to reassign them to a colleague who could better serve them.  Learning how to do that in my business today has been critical.

Now that I have reached that realization, I enjoyed this past tax season more than any prior.  In fact, I enjoyed it to the point where I would be somewhat disappointed if any of my current clients “reassigned” themselves to a different advisor next year.  While it will no doubt happen, I will be comforted in knowing that they, just like me, are simply trying to find the right fit.

It seems that much of life is reassigning or letting go of relationships and activities that no longer fit one’s core values, and that it would be unwise to hang on to everything and everyone.  And I suppose that’s okay.