Category: Peers

He Looks Like an Accountant…


I was on a train a few weeks ago next to a woman reading a mystery novel.  Involuntarily I've glanced at the page and my trained eye spotted the word "accountant."  I couldn't help myself and read a couple of sentences: "Detective Jones came out of his office.  He looked like an accountant. He asked me…."

The "accountant look" has become a social and cultural cliche long time ago.  So, what do people have in mind when they say that?  They mean Charles Grodin in "Dave" and Barry Kivel in "Bound."  They mean Will Ferrell in "Stranger than Fiction" and Gene Wilder in "The Producers," etc.  The numbers of cinematic portrayals available as references is not that large, but the principle idea is clear: they mean, bland, boring, meek. 

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And yes, it is unlikely for an accountant to have a blue mohawk or to strut around in red patent leather boots with 4" heels.  An accountant is not expected to stand out even if he is clad in a $3,000 Italian suit. 

But, let me tell you, very-very frequently that nondescript appearance is just a cover.  Like Superman under his Clark Kent persona, an accountant may be hiding a secret identity, an ambition far beyond his outer image.

Charles Grodin's character cracks Presidential budget's problems overnight.  Shelly in "Bound" steals $2 million from Mafia in attempt to incite his boss's beautiful wife to run away with him.  Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) abandons his regimented life as an IRS agent to become a singer.  Both Gene Wilder in "The Producers" and Jack Lemmon in the "Apartment" get the Girl.

Let's push the movies aside for a second.  In real life the accounting profession is responsible for some fascinating alumni: J.P. Morgan, John Grisham, Bob Newhart, Thomas Pickard, Kenny G. (well, maybe we should keep that one in secret).

The front page of this blog  Raison d'etre expresses my firm believe that CFOs and Controllers regardless of their appearances are the cerebral force behind adventurous entrepreneurs.  It's just that our daredevil streaks are tamed by critical reasoning.

Let's come back to the movie references.  Standards for women are different: here we have Cher in "Moonstruck" and Kirstie Alley in "Look Who's Talking" series.

Cher+Moonstruck

 

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So, it is Ok for a female accountant to be attractive.  Well, maybe the fact that it is more difficult to stick an accounting label on women is the reason why they don't rise to the positions of the perceived "highest level of success" as frequently as men do.  According to CFO.com, Women CFOs Holding Steady: to be exact, steadily under 9% among both Fortune 500 companies and mid-cap 1500.  You see, they don't "look like accountants."

All I can say is that every time I am in the General Admission pit at a rock concert, the young people around me don't believe that I am a CFO. 


You Are Responsible for Your Own Emotional Control


There are two main reasons for my putting so much emphasis on the management of frustration and stress.  First of all, I consider this skill to be one of CFOs and Controllers' prerequisites for efficient functionality: if you don't get a grip on your own emotions you cannot manage the multitude of your tasks at the level that will satisfy your own high standards.  Secondly, this may be the only responsibility that you cannot delegate.  Whatever method of self-control and frustration release you use, you are the only one who can recognize the symptoms and initiate the process.

And in that respect I am in agreement with the recent article on AOL Health by Stephanie Twelto Jacob with a terribly corny title Happiness Roadblocks and a lot of new-age-y formulas that a sensible reader will be able to weed out easily.  I mean, even if you take Aristotle's thought about path to happiness as your initial thesis, it doesn't mean that you should tailor your entire article to fit the narrow interpretation of its language.

Shortcomings aside, I found four sensible points in this article that match my own concept of psychological self-management and fit perfectly into this blog's discussions of work-related frustration and anxiety.  Here are my interpretations:

1.  Choosing to expect the worst at all times in order to avoid disappointments (the policy I've been employing for years myself – guilty as charged) creates not only psychological, but also, through stress-related chemical reactions, physical effects on us.  Plainly speaking, it keeps our bodies in a constant adrenaline overdrive.

2.  I hear my colleagues talking all the time about someone else working at half the effort for twice as much money, having expense accounts, better insurances, larger bonuses, etc, etc.  Comparing your difficult life to somebody's supposed perfect existence creates unnecessary additional frustration.  Don't contrast and compare.  Most likely these people's lives are not as rosy as you perceive it.  Trust me – life is a difficult exercise for everybody.  More importantly, spending your emotional energy on this imaginary competition is a waste of your own valuable resources.

3.  Accepting the unfairness of life is the best defensive mechanism available to us. When things are not based on equality and justice it does not necessarily mean that you always loose.  My intended audience is supposed to consist of educated people in senior management and executive positions.  In comparison to people with the same intellectual capacity who were not able to go to college and graduate schools and be eligible to work in free-market society, we are not doing that bad even if we didn't have connections or luck to become multi-millionaires.

4.  Stop looking for substitution of contentment.  It is not your boss's, your subordinates', your spouse's, your kid's or your new purchase's job to make you feel better about yourselves.  Nobody but yourself truly knows who you are and what your value is.  It is you who possess that intelligence, that expertise, that volume of knowledge and you know your worthiness.  Be proud of your own achievements.