Donna Genie (speaker) tells a personal story encouraging accountants to collaborate with peers and to specialize in an industry niche. She recounts friends (a CPA couple) who followed her advice to specialize, which enabled them to travel extensively (three cruises plus a week in Puerto Rico) and change their lifestyle. The piece frames competitors as potential collaborators.
We've talked a lot before about your competition and how they're really not your competition. And I want to tell you a little story about a personal situation that I've been involved in. I have worked with a couple of other accounting friends where we share information. We try to make each other's practices look at your competition as your best buds. These are people doing the same things you are. You have so much in common with them. Why not make friends with them? One of our good friends that I have known is another couple. Wife is a CPA and the husband works in the practice as well and does sales and marketing. And we had a conversation the other day. We catch up every so often and see what's going on and any new finds that we have. And he said to me, I want to thank you. He said, we've been on the road traveling for five weeks straight now. They were on three back to back cruises and also spent a week in Puerto Rico. He said, I have to thank you from the bottom of my heart because you told us many years ago that we should specialize in a particular industry niche and really dive deeply in rather than just spreading general knowledge around. And that has caused us to have a different life than I ever expected.
