The Purpose

“A vocation is the backbone of life.”

- Friedrich Nietzsche

A few weeks ago, I met Vicente.

Vicente is an accountant. He arrives every day at 8.30 in the morning (on the dot!), has a coffee at 11 and a light lunch at his desk at 1pm. He almost does not get up from his desk all day. In the days that I worked with him, he only did it to collect some papers, crush others and go for his coffee. When he arrives at the office he checks the news in several online newspapers, analyzes the behavior of some stocks and then turns on his Quickbook to begin registering the previous-day`s operations of at least five companies. He makes some calls, reconciles the bank and then, about 5-ish, “he calls it a day". He takes his worn-out briefcase - those old ones that are barely seen in banks or gangster`s movies-, and turns off the lights of the office, locking each door. Then, with the sun of the afternoon giving full in its back, he walks about 3 blocks up to the first subway station. Without iPod or Spotify on his cell phone, he walks slowly but steadily. He waits a few minutes at the station and then, maybe in about 30 minutes, he would get home to rest and prepare for his next day.

This story should not sound strange ... after all is the daily story of any accountant. However, Vicente is special.

Vicente is almost 80 years old, and maintains the desire and lucidity of a person of 30. He keeps his records, knows his clients and every operation that goes through his hands. Vicente orders each paper with a methodology that seems to have been lost in the digital age. Find documents from 10 years ago with an ease that even Google could not imagine. Vicente may have been born before the Cuban Revolution, but it cannot be denied that he has given battle to the Digital Revolution.

In addition, Vicente, who could have retired about 15 years ago, has been working for more than 20 years ago with this client, with whom he has been acquaintance for more than 30. They already look like family, either in the personal treatment or the way of speaking. There is a mutual respect that is already difficult to find in the labor relationships 2.0.

I do not know very well why Vicente hit me so much. I do not know if it was his age, his orderly routine, or his decision to continue working as if nothing happened after turning his retiring age. Although, it may be that for a long time I have not seen a living example of ACCOUNTING VOCATION.

Before we continue, let us define Vocation: the word comes from the Latin word vocāre, "to call", so it is associated with the "inner call" of human nature to follow a certain activity or profession. It is important that our daily work is associated with our vocation to achieve a balance in our life, with our passions and purposes. The fulfillment in our area quickly translates into a need to be spread through society, whether in academic subjects (seminars, blogs, lectures) or social (volunteer, social assistance, etc.). A profession disconnected from our values quickly becomes a technical routine, individualistic and empty of emotions.

Constantly, one sees examples of people with vocation in several disciplines or arts, but in the area of economics almost everything is reduced to business, to make silver and climb an infinite staircase of positions in an organization. It is already vox populi that, if an assistant resists 2 years of little sleep and hard work, he will be a “senior” ... If the senior supports another 3 years of much travel and less sleep, he will be “manager” ... And eventually, after burning several years of life quality, one will be “partner” or have put together enough money to open his own firm, with two or three assistants, and that will give him an immense satisfaction of saying "Ready, I'm done. It was worth the effort". But what about the vocation? The desire? At what point in that story did you lose the thrill of making an adjustment entry? Or make a report that is worthy of an "excellent" and not the issue of an invoice? What about the willingness to continue training ourselves by learning from our colleagues?

Lately I have received some congratulations from clients for reports or tasks that take less than 15 minutes to be done (dynamic tables, do minor changes to Financial Statements, google an update in tax legislation or check a tax credit) and instead of being satisfied I asked myself: How much degenerated is our profession that there are people who practice it without even grasping some clear concepts (or even ignoring them)? One thing may be not managing the latest IFRS or ISAs, but another very different is not knowing whether to book an accrual or just disclose a note ... or not applying depreciations ... or not knowing that the basic accounting equation must add up. I have seen many things in these almost 10 years of profession ... but the subject of accounting ethics will remain for a future post. 

I think Vicente, at his 80s, was just a breath of fresh air, someone who conveyed the hope that the accounting vocation is not extinct. There are values that we must rescue from the (not-so-)old-fashioned accountants. Knowing how to register does not mean being an accountant. We must be a constant support of financial/tax intelligence for our clients, preserving our integrity as professionals. And as leaders in our field we must convey that desire and knowledge to the new professionals who are just beginning. 

I was lucky Vicente did that to me by chance...