May 24, 2013

Diary of a Young Tax Accountant: My Long Journey to Become a Successful Entrepreneur (Entry #1)




God wants us not to be scared to show our weaknesses. Throughout history, millions of people became inspired by other great peoples' weakness. If you believe that you are invincible, then I feel very sorry for you. For years, I kept my weaknesses and failures to myself and a few other people. However, over the last six years I have found that people really appreciate when I do share my experiences. God has motivated me to share my experiences on a weekly basis through my blog. It is my hope that readers become inspired.

On paper, it appears that I have a perfect life. I have no student loans, two great parents, a supportive older sister, a beautiful wife and son, a Master's degree in Taxation, I'm in a fraternity, I'm a Junior Steward at my church and I started my own company (www.jstaxcorp.com). In reality, the list is even longer but I think you get the point. However, I have this great fear of failure. This fear doesn't hold me back from taking risk. Matter of fact, all of my greatest accomplishments were after major failures. This fear puts great and unnecessary pressure on myself to achieve. Even though I know a lot of supportive people, I often feel alone. I just got over a three-year period of having intense nightmares every single time that I went to sleep (including short naps). Now, my intense nightmares happen every other night.

Before you throw me a pity-party, listen to what I have to say. Life is hard and unfair. We can either give up or keep on fighting. Just like dealing with the IRS. Instead of complaining about the IRS, learn how to deal with them. At the age of 33, I'm already used to getting rejected and being misunderstood. As a young black male, my journey to grow an successful and respectable accounting will be extremely hard and frustrating. My personality is that I rather fail then not have tried at all.

This past week, I spoke to about twelve different people about working together. To be honest, I received twelve unfavorable outcomes. Some outcomes included unreturned calls, fake smiles and flat out rejection. The past couple of days, I felt like no one takes me seriously. This feeling has affected my interaction with my family. Thankfully, I have a great wife and she usually snaps me out of my funk. If my wife doesn't snap me out of it, I have a energetic two-year old son that shows me unconditionally love.

I encourage you to follow my weekly diary posts. Entrepreneurship and taxes are a killer combination. As I mentioned before, the goal is not to have you feel sorry for me. The goal of the weekly posts are to let you know that you are not alone. Believe me when I say that "in the end, I will not lose!" So follow me on my journey to become a successful entrepreneur. You won't be disappointed!

Until next time.....don't stop believing!

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