I Inspire and Educate

I teach you the things that I figured out about how to get a business to run more efficiently more effectively and with greater accuracy.

I moved to California in April of 1999. It wasn't planned. For the first month or so only my parents and close family knew where I was. 

It was my third (and so far final) rehab. I had no idea where this would all go, but during my 6 month stay I decided it would be better to stay indefinitely. 

I already had my accounting degree so finding work was not going to be an issue. That was one of the main reasons I chose accounting - I knew I could always find work.

The other BIG reason I chose accounting was that I liked to organize things. 

I remember sitting on the steps of the office building on the corner of 5th & Santa Monica Blvd one day eating my brown bag lunch. I was working as a temp for a hedge fund. The people there were not kind. They would lock me out of their office at lunch time claiming it was their policy not to leave anyone alone in there who was not their employee. All I wanted was a comfortable place to eat my lunch. And they never invited me to join them, wherever they went.

I was not quite a year clean and I remember thinking, "is this what I got clean for?"

Then my next thought came.

I would NEVER treat people like this. 

One day I would have my own company and I would make sure to treat my employees really well. I mean, how hard is it?

The pattern continued.

The next company I worked for hired me full time, but not right away. Even after I had uncovered north of $20K in theft, it took awhile for them to hire me.

Similar experience working for an insecure boss who would berate his subordinates instead of teaching us when we made mistakes. In one case the whole group of us heard the exact same set of instructions and made the exact same mistake. This time he called us in individually. I was one of the last, by which time I knew what was going on, so I called him out on it. 

He insisted it was not his instructions, but that all of us collectively and intentionally chose to ignore him and make the same mistake independently.

I needed my job, so I bit my tongue when I was tempted to say, "so that's why you called us in individually to point out our collective and consistent mistake?"

The next job was just as bad. Maybe worse. Not to mention the nature of the work was depressing.

It was a CPA firm who specialized in bankruptcy.

The message became clear. 

As long as I was working for someone else, I would be subject to their bad decisions and choices, not to mention poor leadership.

So I started placing ads on Craigslist and picking up side work, mostly designing things in Excel for people.

When the time came that I had enough work, I gave notice at the CPA firm. 

That's when Nerd Enterprises was born in 2003.

In 2006 I went to work for one of my clients. I hadn't learned my lesson.

A year or so later I was back at it. This time I incorporated Nerd Enterprises, Inc. because it was clear to me. I would never want to work for someone else ever again.

Today I have two employees. 

We work remotely.

I have never raised my voice at either of them. And I never talk down to them.

My role is clear. 

I teach them. The better I do my job as a teacher, the better they are able to do the job our clients hire us to do for them.

It works. This is what a "True" leader does. They teach.

When a manager berates his / her employees it stems from their own insecurities. The last thing they will ever accomplish is to inspire people to follow them.

A true leader does two simple things really well, and this is what I strive to do, not just with my employees, but with my clients, colleagues and friends everywhere:

Inspire and Educate...

I hope I can do this for you one day. I hope we can work together in some way, shape or form. And I hope we can inspire and educate each other, and grow together. That's what a relationship should look like.