Steve and Judy's Travels!

The plants can get large and messy.

But the flowers are precious.

Offshoring talent

Latest tech tools and technologies

Elevating the client experience

A fresh look at partner compensation models

31 hours of continuing education accomplished

The Engage 2024 Conference is over.  Engage 2025 is already in my schedule for next year.

Quote of the day: “Kindness without accountability is a recipe for entitlement.”

I struggle with this one.  I want to be able to be kind without demanding something in return.  Entitlement as a result would be a disappointing unintended consequence.  I’m still haunted by an episode of Anthony Bourdain.  He was in Haiti doing a food segment.  At the end of the event, there was food left over.  What to do with that?  Throw it out?  There were hungry kids standing right outside the door.  Give it to them.  The best of intentions.  Word spread at lightning speed.  Little kids got pushed out of the way by bigger kids.  Hungry adults pushed their way in.  The police showed up and started beating people to restore order.  Chaos.  The best of intentions.  Unintended consequences.  That sucked.

But I still need to come to a conclusion for how I feel about the quote, “Kindness without accountability is a recipe for entitlement” I’m going to disagree with the premise.  If I have to demand something in return for kindness, isn’t that more like a purchase?  There can be negative unintended consequences as a result but it’s not an absolute.  Sometimes kindness without accountability is just kindness.

The conference I’m attending is in Las Vegas, on Pacific Time.  That makes for relaxed morning coffees with Judy.  I start 7:00am classes at 9:00!  That leaves me working a little late in the evening though.  They think they’re ending at 5:30.  Today we talked about the Private Equity Boom; non-CPA aggregators buying up individual CPA firms.  Unlocking the power of non-accountants, review analytics, Bitcoin, accountability for remote workers, and the Modern Audit.  Grandson Tony got a job at Amazon in Seattle.  He’s already there, settled in and working.  Yay, Tony.  We don’t really know what he’s doing yet.  Software engineer maybe.  That description is pretty general though.  We’re looking forward to the next time we get together with him and hear all about it.  His mom and dad are driving his car out there to him later this week.  He’s not far from Christie and Andy who will be convenient for family support and a home-cooked meal.  The brand of Judy’s new hearing aids is ReSound, same as the last ones she had.  Before that they were Oticon.  Our van got built in Kansas City.  Now it’s in Houston, on its way to us eventually.  Quote of the day: “A dream without a plan is a wish.”

Bonus quote:  “Skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”  Wayne Gretzky.

…and compared our industry issues to Formula 1 racing.  That was a great presentation, but the analogy might have been a bit of a stretch.  Accounting talent, generative A.I., Inspector Gadget, Microsoft 365 Teams, and optimizing virtual offices.  Quote of the day:  A.I. is not coming to take your job.  The person who understands A.I. is.

That’s what this week is.  A conference in Las Vegas.  It’s not about debits and credits.  It’s more about firm management and tech possibilities than the nuts and bolts of accounting.  When I was fully engulfed in work, it was my escape for a week every year; a chance to stop doing what I was doing long enough to think about how I was doing what I was doing.  It remains a favorite thing.  We don’t go to Las Vegas for it anymore.  Now we can participate virtually from the comfort of our own home.  And it goes a long way toward the 40 hours of continuing education I need to get every year to remain a CPA.

Judy got her new hearing aids today.  They are a big improvement.