The New American Dream

The way I always heard the story was that people came to America from around the world to have freedom and financial stability....The American Dream!

Doesn't the word "dream" tell us that it might not always be reality or that the dream may be bigger than life?  Do you think the fat cats of our largest financial institutions or auto companies have lost site of this?  What about our political leaders?  They certainly must always have this in mind, as is it not their responsibility to keep this nation as great and greater than always?

Somebody needs to get all of these "leaders" and send them back to the basics.  Maybe they should all have to run their own businesses using their own money and credit for ten years.  Until they are able to prove they can grow a business and manage money and people they shouldn't be able to take a seat where they are responsible for TRILLIONS of dollars the rest of us spend a lifetime trying to generate. That way sex, color or political party preference would all be the same....Red, White and Blue.

What are we teaching our young "professionals-to-be"?  Go get the best degree you can from the most prestigious school around and latch on to a big company.  Don't disrupt anything, play nice and always make sure nobody knows what you're doing.  Pretty soon you can be the CEO of one our nations pride and joy companies and flush it down the toilet while you become a millionaire.  Don't worry, Congress will make the rest of America pay for it and you can travel the world on your private jet!

By Victor D Puchi, CPA

R&A CPAs

People Care

So I've been pretty quiet on the blog front for quite some time. I was just recently inspired to continue by one of my staff members that said "I miss reading what your thoughts are". If one person is interested, I suspect there are more, so here I am.

In todays market place, the accounting profession is still experiencing a shortage of qualified professionals. This environment causes businesses to be extra efficient and excellent at retention if they are to compete. We've been struggling with this for years now and every day we get better at transforming our young and not so you team from takers to givers.

Last Friday we launched the annual R&A Employee Retreat. For the first time ever, we closed the office and took all employees to a resort for a day of education. The key was that the education had nothing to do with accounting but everything to do with personal development and what R&A CPAs was all about and how or why each individual makes a difference. We had a great guest speaker, Robert Van Arlen, that started the day off and really got things moving in the right direction. For eight straight hours we educated and learned like never before. Sometimes all you have to do is ask and you'll find out where the interests are and even more important you find out where you can help. People really want to do the right thing for the most part and in order to help/teach them you must listen. In this case it helped by asking away from our typical environment in a setting that was built to show we care. We learned that we have a lot of very special people that care too! Everybody there on Friday won a very special prize and we all will benefit.

If anyone out there is in need of a keynote or motivational speaker Robert Van Arlen is your guy! Check him out at www.robertvanarlen.com. I need to make sure I let you all know that I met Robert through Main Corridor, www.maincorridor.com, another great organization you should check out.