your biggest enemies: procrastination and questioning advice before you’ve even tried it.
by jackie meyer
“if your business depends on you, you don’t own a business – you have a job. and it’s the worst job in the world because you’re working for a lunatic!” – michael e. gerber, “the e-myth revisited: why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it”
october 2010. the day is etched in my memory – cold and sharp, like the sting of betrayal. i was sitting in my car, gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white. just moments before, i had been fired. fired from a job i thought was secure, on a career path i believed i was destined for. the words from my boss were still ringing in my ears: “we’re going in a different direction.” i was stunned. what did that mean for my direction?
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it felt like the bottom had dropped out of my life. years of studying, late nights, and climbing what i thought was the “right” ladder had led to this: humiliation, anger and a terrifying sense of … nothingness. but as i sat there, eyes burning with tears i refused to let fall, something unexpected began to stir beneath the surface of those raw emotions. a spark. a flicker of defiance. and the faintest whisper of an idea.
looking back, getting fired wasn’t just a setback; it was a catalyst. it was the jolt i needed to break free from a path that, while seemingly successful on the outside, was never truly mine. i had followed the well-trodden route: big prestigious firm, respectable job title, steady paycheck. but deep down, i felt empty. i was a cog in someone else’s machine, not a creator of my own destiny. i was trading hours for dollars, and the trade felt increasingly unfair.
a quick word of caution: if you’re reading this and thinking, “i already know all this,” or “my firm has it all figured out,” i urge you to pause. you might be used to being the smartest person in the room – many of us in this profession are. but for now, try to set that aside. be open-minded. this stuff works, but your biggest enemies right now are procrastination and questioning the advice before you’ve even tried it. my mentor learned of how successful my pricing method was, and he was so excited to go tell his accounting firm about it because it was so win-win. the accountant wouldn’t even let him explain it. he cut him off and said, “we prepare 10,000 returns a year, and we have really good processes.” well, no wonder we don’t see or hear from you from january to april, because that’s healthy! what i’m sharing here might challenge some of your assumptions, but it’s designed to help you break free from those very assumptions that are holding you back.
the illusion of security: i started my career at deloitte, one of the biggest and most respected accounting firms in the world. it was supposed to be the dream job – great pay, stability, a clear trajectory upward. and yes, i learned a ton. i honed my technical skills, navigated complex tax laws and learned how to manage demanding clients. but i also learned that i didn’t want to spend my life buried in spreadsheets for 70 hours a week. the work was intense and the pressure high, but the fulfillment was … lacking. i felt like a tiny piece in a massive puzzle, and i longed to create my own picture.
so i left deloitte for a smaller cpa firm, thinking i’d have more of an impact. i imagined contributing to the firm’s growth, having a voice, making a real difference. instead, i found myself micromanaged, undervalued and suffocating under someone else’s vision of success. my ideas were dismissed, my creativity stifled. i was exhausted – not just physically, but emotionally and mentally. ironically, the “safer” small firm job made me even unhappier. getting fired from that firm wasn’t just a rejection; it was a liberation. it forced me to confront a truth i had been avoiding: i wasn’t meant to be an employee. i was meant to build something of my own.
the birth of a side hustle: i had always harbored entrepreneurial dreams, but fear held me back – fear of failure, fear of uncertainty, fear of the unknown. losing my job ripped off the band-aid. suddenly, i had nothing left to lose. and that terrifying freedom was also incredibly empowering. in late 2010, i took a leap of faith and started my own cpa practice … as a side hustle at first. during the day, i found a job teaching other accountants how to use emerging tax software – work i actually enjoyed, because i was helping others adapt and thrive with new technology. but at night, i poured every ounce of energy into building my own firm. i answered client calls, prepared tax returns on my kitchen table, and learned every aspect of running a business by doing it.
i was driven. i was passionate. but i was also working around the clock. clients were coming in (word gets around when you do good work and actually return calls). i was making more money than i ever had before. i set my hourly rate at $150 – quite good for a solo practitioner at the time – and on the surface, it looked like i was living the entrepreneurial dream. but the reality? i was working myself to the bone, taking on every client who came my way, and tying my income directly to the hours i could physically work. i had escaped one burnout trap only to land in another of my own making. my business was growing, but i was burning out.
the e-myth realization: technician vs. entrepreneur: this is where i had a major realization, thanks to michael gerber’s “the e-myth revisited.” i realized that most of us who start our own firms are, at heart, technicians, not natural-born entrepreneurs. i was a great cpa, a skilled tax strategist. i knew the technical side of my profession inside and out. but i wasn’t necessarily a natural at running a business. i was good at doing the work, but not necessarily at managing the work or building a scalable, sustainable enterprise. like many, i had fallen into the trap of thinking, “if i’m good at doing the work, i’ll be good at running a business that does that work.” but that’s a dangerous assumption. running a business requires a whole different set of skills: marketing, sales, systems, management. i was learning those skills on the fly, often the hard way. i was effectively creating a job for myself, not a business that could run without me.
the “aha” moment: hourly billing is broken: the pivotal insight that changed everything came courtesy of a very complex tax return. i had a client who was a private equity investor. their tax situation was a snarled web of k-1s and intricate financial transactions. they had tried to prepare the return themselves and made a significant error – reporting a large capital gain as ordinary income, which inflated their tax bill by hundreds of thousands of dollars. i spent hours untangling the mess, corrected the return and ultimately saved them about $150,000 in taxes. the client was ecstatic (understandably), and i felt a surge of pride.
but later that night, as i sat at my desk, drained, i looked at the numbers for that project. for saving them $150,000, i had charged a few hundred dollars – because my fee was based on my $150 hourly rate and the time it took. that hit me like a ton of bricks. i was solving huge, high-value problems, but my earnings were capped by an arbitrary hourly rate that had no relation to the value i provided. the traditional model was broken. my real value wasn’t in the hours i worked, but in the results i delivered. when i actually calculated my net income against my hours, my true hourly earnings were shockingly low (remember that $40/hour figure? yep). i was working myself to exhaustion and not being fairly compensated for the transformative value i was providing.
this realization was a turning point. i knew i had to break free from hourly billing and find a way to price my services based on value. this was the first step on the journey to becoming a “balanced millionaire” – an advisor who achieves financial success and reclaims their time and life.
don’t allow fear to rule your life and decisions. you have to evaluate every opportunity as an investment with a cost/benefit. if the roi is there, just do it. in the “4-hour workweek,” timothy ferriss observes, “people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.” this insight highlights a common human tendency to remain in unfavorable situations rather than face the unknown. ferriss suggests that the fear of uncertainty often outweighs the discomfort of unhappiness, leading individuals to stay in unfulfilling jobs or lifestyles simply because they are familiar. he encourages readers to confront this fear, arguing that embracing uncertainty is essential for personal growth and achieving a fulfilling life. “i learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” – nelson mandela
are you a natural-born entrepreneur? (quiz)
before we dive deeper into the strategies and systems that transformed my practice, let’s take a moment for self-reflection. do you have an entrepreneurial spirit burning inside you? answer the following questions honestly:
- do you enjoy taking initiative and finding creative solutions to problems?
- are you comfortable with uncertainty and ambiguity?
- do you have a strong desire for independence and control over your work?
- are you willing to work hard and make short-term sacrifices to achieve long-term goals?
- do you see opportunities where others see obstacles?
- are you passionate about your field and eager to learn and grow?
- do you have a vision for something bigger than yourself?
- are you comfortable taking risks and learning from failures?
- do you enjoy connecting with people and building relationships?
- do you truly believe in your ability to create something meaningful?
if you answered “yes” to many of these questions, you likely have an entrepreneurial spirit. that spark – the desire to build and create – is the first ingredient of becoming a balanced millionaire. it’s what will drive you to push through challenges and innovate in your practice.
we’ll ignite that spark into a flame. i’ll show you how to overcome the common obstacles that hold so many firm owners back and share the exact steps i took (and that many others have since taken) to build a practice and a life that matter.