CPAs and accountants regularly set themselves apart from other professionals by citing their status as “most trusted advisor” to their clients, and there is certainly no doubt that the invaluable services they render and their dedication to securing the best outcomes for their clients are unique. But I’d like to suggest that there is an equally important differentiator: accountants’ dedication to serving their fellow accountants, and the profession they all embrace.
I can think of no other profession whose members give so much to one another, are so willing to share the secrets of their success, and do so much to raise up their fellows and burnish the reputation of their chosen field.
All this came to mind because I was thinking recently about Ed Mendlowitz, who is a shining exemplar of this singular strength of the profession, on the occasion of his 600th column for Accounting Today. Over the years he has shared a busy and successful career’s worth of insights and wisdom with our readers, and that alone would put the profession in his debt, but he has done much more — sharing so many useful templates, worksheets and checklists with literally tens of thousands of accountants; writing books and speaking publicly; and speaking privately, on an astonishingly regular basis, with fellow practitioners who call him for advice and counsel on everything from how to get through busy season to how to structure their firms to last a lifetime. His generosity and his desire to help his fellow CPAs and accountants are prime examples of what make accounting great.
(Read more: See a selection of Ed’s top columns.)
Ed is, of course, far from the only example of accountants giving back. The countless thousands who serve as volunteer leaders and committee members at state societies, the American Institute of CPAs, the National Conference of CPA Practitioners, the National Association of Black Accountants, and many other membership groups do their part, as do all those who speak to would-be accountants in high schools and colleges; who share their expertise with their fellow accountants in videos, podcasts, blogs, books, roundtables and more; and all those who, like Ed (though perhaps not on his industrial scale), take time to talk a fellow accountant through a complicated issue.
Mark Koziel, the president and CEO of the American Institute of CPAs, touched on this very issue in a keynote in early June at the institute’s Engage conference: “The collaboration we have as a profession is incredible — that two people from competing firms can talk about advancing the profession is incredible.”
That spirit of collaboration and dedication to accounting is why, even though Ed is stepping back from his regular columns, he still stands out as a role model for so much that is outstanding about the profession.
