Follow your own path

If your childhood was anything remotely like mine then you’ll be familiar with the scenario where you were in trouble and the only defence you could offer the parent standing in front of you was that “everyone else was doing it” to which came the crushing response “And if they all jumped off a cliff would you jump off too?”

You may be familiar with Roger’s Innovation Adoption Curve. If not, you’ll certainly be familiar with the terminology used. We have the innovators, the early adopters, the early majority, the late majority and the laggards.

The innovator are the creators of something new, an idea or product.

The early adopters are the first to jump on board. They take the risk of investing in something without a track record because they want to be cutting edge and different.

The early majority are mainstream but still looking for change and progression. They don’t want the risk of being first in the queue but are willing to sign up once they see others of their kind adopting it successfully.

The late majority will still follow change but more because they have to, driven by commercial or compliance pressure or the sway of market opinion.

The laggards we don’t need to worry about, they won’t be reading this!

When it comes to innovation, there is a safety in numbers. Doing something because others are doing it gives us comfort but also a ready-made excuse if it goes pear-shaped. There are plenty of others to blame.

I have no issue with accounting firm leaders sitting within the majority. I think that, for a firm to be progressive, it will sit towards the front of the pack with the rest of the early majority but that isn’t a bad place to be and I suspect that many of you will comfortably recognise yourself there.

Where I do worry is when we take the same pack mentality into how we define ourselves and our firms. As accountants we talk about profitability, net worth, capital value. We use gross recurring fees, the number of clients or the size of our offices to define our businesses. This is our safe space. We do the things that other accountants do and benchmark ourselves accordingly.

But is that where fulfilment comes from? What about passion, excitement, satisfaction and enjoyment?

We are all driven by different things. We have different values and goals. Our beliefs and priorities are personal and vary from those of others. If we play safe, stick with the majority and limit ourselves to doing the things that other accountants do, how to we achieve fulfilment when it is so personal to us?

Accountants are constantly being told what they should and shouldn’t be doing. I must be guilty of it myself on occasion. We should be doing ‘advisory’. We should be embedding ChatGPT in our client communications. We should be utilising AI. We should be increasing our fees, niching our firms, automating our delivery.

What we should be doing is following our vision, our values, our dreams and doing whatever the hell we want to do in line with those!

And before you hit the panic button, I’m confident that the vast majority have the morals, values and ethics and professionalism for that not to be a problem.

Choosing your own path is the route to fulfilment. Doing what you really believe in, what you enjoy and what you are great at, is how to create workplaces full of passion, excitement, satisfaction and enjoyment. You don’t achieve that by following the crowd.

Think about what will give you fulfilment, satisfaction and pride. Think about where your passion lies. Think about what really matters to you.

That’s how to plan your firm or career forwards.