NOTE: “Hear ye, hear ye!” Your IGAL INSIDER is introducing its newest section, PERSONAL HISTORY. We have heard from our readership: let us hear our colleagues’ voices, let us read about them, let us know them better. This is our opportunity to share information, to present ourselves to a degree which may not reveal itself right away. Or continue conversations we have had during our meetings and expound upon them. As usual, anything and everything is acceptable. Please tell us about yourselves and let us know you better. As usual, your editor is inaugurating the section, for the good or bad. Hope you like it and approve of it. Here we go…
HOW I BECAME AN ACCOUNTANT
So, check this out: I am 18 years old and living in Los Angeles. High school completed in a stellar fashion and planning my future. Trying to be responsible and make something of myself. There were four things which were top on my list of career options having abandoned my boyhood wishes of becoming a fireman or a policeman:
(a) become a professional bike rider in the Tour de France (now I realize that the real motivating factor behind it was to move to Europe and date European girls).
(b) become a professional gambler (in later years I actually tried and lived that life very briefly but that’ll be an article by itself in the future).
(c) give writing a chance as it was an area in which I always excelled and was urged to continue developing in.
(d) become an FBI agent (maybe I read too many crime novels and was obsessed with James Bond).
That was it. Those were my career plans. It clearly shows that I had no idea what I was doing. However, I knew that I had to go a university and study. I had myself accepted to an elite school in Southern California and started the journey of figuring my life out.
Biking turned out to be really hard. Took a lot of time and sweat to no avail. Biking was, at that time, not a recognized activity, let alone a sport, in the United States. I kept doing it for a long time, obviously recreationally. I feel I was successful as, today, I have the same number of Tour de France wins as Lance Armstrong. So, that is, at least, something.
Gambling was even harder, far less healthy but equally sweaty and nerve wracking.
The most difficult was attempting to write. I didn’t know what to write about or how to do it (as you can see, nothing has changed). But I enjoyed doing it and still do. Eventually, it became a way to relax; sitting by myself, pondering the world and trying to find my place in it.
The FBI seemed the best option. A secure job, doing something meaningful and interesting. I knew that the FBI hired mostly accountants and lawyers. In preparation for my new career I took accounting classes (before anything law related) and absolutely loved it. It seemed super easy, logical and very organized. The whole world fit in a square on a piece of paper. All issues were resolved pretty much in every problem. No guess work, no uncertainty.
I was excited about the prospect of using those skills to make a difference in law enforcement, to make my city, state, country a better place. After graduating with a business, accounting degree I entered the job market where my first choice was the FBI. Then, this thing called life interfered. It turned out I was an attractive candidate to professional accounting firms. Due to a variety of circumstances which I could write volumes about (one of them being the difference in pay) I ended up working in a professional environment. I have been in it to this day.
However, every time I read about financial investigations, passing of laws and enforcing them, chasing and analyzing financial transactions I always think of what might have been.
And, I say to myself, I’ll fulfill that dream in my next life. I hope.
by Mike Djordjevich
Address :
321 High School Road #303
Bainbridge Island
WA 98110
USA
Telephone : +1 661 645 5572
Email : mike@mdj-cpa.com
Website : http://www.mdj-cpa.com