Thursday, October 17, 2013

Why famous people didn't want to be accountants

Three related quotes I came across recently:

The first is attributed to Sir Trevor Holdsworth, then Chairman of National Power and a former chairman of GKN plc. Apparently, when he was younger he had hopes of being a musician but bowed to his parents' wishes and became an accountant.
"To be an accountant is a choice of the head, not the heart...to be an accountant is a second choice. It lacks the vocational flavour of the doctor or the cleric, the romance of the armed services...and the born instinct and natural ability of the artist and musician."
Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records, worked for a short time in Accountancy. In July 1989 the Mail On Sunday reported him as describing this period of his life as:
"The closest to Hell I've ever been"
And Godfrey Bradman, then Chairman and Joint Chief Executive of Rosehaugh plc was reported to have said to the Independent newspaper on 30 October 1989 that:
"I wake up every morning and thank God that I'm not a Chartered Accountant any longer, but involved with property."

1 comment:

Alison Ball, Intuit said...

Loved this Mark! I sometimes joke that I am a "recovering accountant" and people laugh. But I know why I went into accountancy in the first place - it was to help businesses make better business decisions. And I think that somehow gets lost when we think of accountants. They really truly just want to help businesses be more successful. And that motivates them every day to go above and beyond what is simply required.

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