Most accountants have only ever been accountants. That's not a criticism — it's how the profession works. You qualify, you join a firm, you specialise, you stay.
My career took a longer way round. I've been the auditor at KPMG, looking at other people's businesses from the outside. I've been the CFO at YSL in the UK, running the money for someone else's business from the inside. I've founded and run companies of my own — a Microsoft training business in New Zealand that put certification systems into schools, and now this practice. I've been the person losing sleep about payroll, the person negotiating with the bank, the person deciding whether to hire, the person trying to work out whether the business was actually profitable or just busy.
That's not a common path for an accountant. It's also the reason clients tell me the advice feels different — because it comes from someone who's been where they are, not just someone who's read about it.
