What I Learned This Year: Hard Truths and Gratifying Wins

2024 was a rewarding year for me as I:

• Advised CEOs and leadership teams of five top 60 CPA firms

• Became a strategic advisor and/or investor to four startups

• Spent 100+ hours meeting 1:1 with CEOs and firm leaders

• Appeared on 10+ podcasts

• Invested 8+ hours in live mentorship calls with members of this community

• Wrote and shared over 80,000 words on Linkedin and my email articles this year

• Sent both of my children out of state to college

• Began daily cold plunging

• Logged over 320 daily workouts

• Permanently changed my diet, concentrating on protein and fat

• Began writing a book

• Still haven’t met my marketing/writing partner proving that intentional connections in a virtual world are effective

• Met a wonderfully talented individual with whom I am partnering on a new venture

As many of you know, over the course of a year, I fill many notebooks with thoughts, reflections, and lessons I've learned.

Here are some of the biggest themes and lessons that stand out from this year:

1. This stuff is hard.

Strategy is hard. Mindset shift is hard. Maturing organizations is hard. Scaling is hard.

If it were easy, everyone would excel at it, and that's simply not the case.

Even though I've sat in the chair, I've found it insightful to invest time with so many CEOs and leaders.

It's given me a new appreciation for just how hard this stuff is and heightened respect and admiration for the leaders who are fighting the good fight to create differentiated futures for their firms.

Molds are created for a reason... BREAKING THE MOLD™ is no easy task.

Takeaway: If you are finding it difficult to lead your organization or team, execute strategy, enable growth, or build scale... that's because it IS hard.

Keep going because it's a worthy climb.

2. "Human nature is undefeated".

Someone said this to me this year and I thought it was brilliant.

Ultimately, humans gravitate toward the things that are built into our nature.

Status. Safety. Comfort. Risk-aversion. Self-preservation.

Are those the things that will serve us on the journey to building winning organizations and careers?

I don’t think so...

Takeaway: If human nature is undefeated, we have to be self-aware enough to recognize our nature and intentionally build strategies to overcome it. What is within your nature that you can better account for in 2025?

3. I'm not the only one seeking to BREAK THE MOLD™.

It's been rewarding to become part of a new (for me) ecosystem of disruptors.

As I started sharing more of my ideas about how we, as a profession, need to think differently, I've met so many like-minded individuals and built some meaningful relationships with fellow dreamers who are not only willing to BREAK THE MOLD™, but are actually doing it.

If you're reading this, I consider you part of that ecosystem and it's been meaningful to connect with so many of you.

Takeaway: The more you share your beliefs, the more likely you are to attract people who think the same way.

4. People are looking at their careers the wrong way.

I've had a number of career-oriented conversations in mentorship calls and with leaders of the firms I'm advising.

Whenever people share they feel lost in their career or unsure of what to do next, I encourage people to come back to the work.

What do you want to be doing every day that gets you excited? What do you love?

Define what THAT is and then build a plan to do more of it.

Takeaway: The more you focus on the actual work you want to be doing and less on the title, company, or compensation, the more fulfillment you'll find in your career.

5. Enabling others is gratifying.

After having spent nearly a decade in the CEO chair, I've got to tell you, I've found it extremely gratifying to share my experiences and perspectives to enable other leaders to grow their organizations.

Sure, it's also gratifying to build something yourself, but there's something uniquely rewarding about coaching and enabling others that I've really enjoyed.

And you know what's interesting? It's in the process of enabling others that I've found some of the greatest sparks for my own pursuits. I've learned from the CEOs and leaders I've coached just as much as they've learned from me.

Takeaway: If you find yourself feeling stuck or looking for more meaning in your work life, how can you provide mentorship to others? It may unlock new ways of thinking or opportunities you would have never considered.

Final Reflections

Lastly, I want to extend my gratitude to each of you reading this.

Thank you for being here and thank you to the hundreds of people who have commented or told me privately to keep writing and stating things that have needed to be said.

Your messages, support, and encouragement have meant the world to me and helped me continue on this mission to BREAK THE MOLD™ of the way we've always done things to create a new, better future.

It's a journey that's far from over, and I'm excited and energized to continue that mission, together, into 2025 in new and better ways.

What's one lesson you've learned from this year that you'll take into 2025? Send me a reply. Always curious to hear from you.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you and your family.

With intention,
Alan D Whitman