There's so much opportunity in business, but if you don't know the language of money, if you don't understand how financial statements work, then you're really going to be limited. This is Boosting your Financial IQ, where I help business professionals with financial responsibility to elevate their careers and run profitable companies. My hope is that you'll apply these lessons to achieve your greatest ambitions. Cheers and enjoy. I love it when I hear from the boosting your financial IQ community. Adam, this episode is for you, my brother. Thank you so much for reaching out. Adam has questions about schooling, degrees, career path and all that kind of stuff, and I'm sure a lot of you who are listening are wondering the same types of things. So today, in this episode, I'm going to share a little bit about my background and my journey and the insights that I've learned along the way. So if you're trying to figure out your path forward, or perhaps you're ready to make a change, this episode is for you.

Now you may have gathered from my other episodes or from reading my books that I have a non-traditional background. In fact, after high school, I went to college. I made it through my junior year and it was at that time that my business was really starting to take off. Remember, I started a landscape company when I was 16 years old out of my sister's garage. It's supposed to just be a side hustle to pay for school, but then it turned into a full-blown business. And here I was in college, my junior year. Two weeks left in the semester, my phone was blowing up. I also had a pager. If you remember what a pager is, I had a pager. It was going off all the time. All these leads were coming in, all these jobs were piling up and I decided to walk out of class. Now, if you're in school right now, I don't recommend just walking out. Okay, I made mistakes along the way. You definitely don't want to go down my path, but that was my journey at the time. And sure, I look back sometimes and I wish I would have just stayed in school, but at the time I just wasn't ready for it. So I decided to leave and I pursued my business.

I built a business over 13 years, grew it into a multi-million dollar company and made a ton of mistakes along the way that I probably would have avoided if I would have just stayed in school. But the good thing was is that at the time I had no clue what I actually wanted to do with school and therefore I had to go out into the real world and get that experience and go through the school of hard knocks in order to realize what I truly wanted to do. And it made me get very serious about schooling. And this is true if you're paying for school. Now, if your parents are paying for school, hey, there's no shame in that whatsoever. My mom was super poor. She didn't have the money, and it was a huge blessing for me in disguise, because since she didn't have money, I had. It was a huge blessing for me in disguise because, since she didn't have money, I had to pay for school myself, and that made me get a lot more serious about attending class, paying attention and getting good grades. So I hear from people sometimes that they say, look, I hate having all the student debt. I wish my parents had more money, or I wish they just paid for school and I had this free ticket to ride. Trust me, that may be an actual curse for you. Okay, because when you're paying for things yourself, there's a lot more value in it. And who knows, maybe your parents are paying for school and you value it already. Kudos to you, but that's just a side note.

I got serious after running my business for a number of years and I was making mistakes, and I realized I had a massive gap in knowledge. I've said this before in other episodes that here I was running this multi-million dollar business. I was super young, super green, I had no clue how to read financial statements and I was making all types of decisions for my business and on behalf of my employees, and it was crazy. I can't believe I did that, but that's what I did and it did work out. But I made a lot of mistakes and I left a ton of money on the table. So, realizing my financial limitations and other limitations, I decided to go back to school.

Now, since I was older, when I was going back to school and my time was limited, I was married, I was the owner of this business and I had a lot of demands on my time, so I had to be super intentional with what. I was the owner of this business and I had a lot of demands on my time, so I had to be super intentional with what I was doing. So I decided to go to school and get a degree that would be really practical and that would provide me with skills that would enable me to get a job in any type of environment. So I decided to get a degree in finance because I wanted to learn numbers, I wanted to narrow my focus and I didn't want to just get a general business management degree. I wanted to walk away with tangible skills.

Now let me be honest. Finance scared the crap out of me. But here's my philosophy in life, anytime I've been faced with two decisions and one decision is harder, more likely than not, the decisions that's harder or the path that is harder is the right path. That's just for me. That's my philosophy. So if there's two things to do, I always try to choose to do the harder thing because that's the right thing. Sometimes it's easy to do stuff, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right thing to do.

So here I was. I was facing all these different degrees. I knew I wanted to do stuff, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right thing to do. So here I was. I was facing all these different degrees. I knew I wanted to do something in business. I had general management. There were operations. I could go down the path of general management, operations, finance, accounting and marketing. So I chose finance. But I also have this creative side about me. So when I told my family I was going back to school, they thought okay, what are you doing? You're an entrepreneur, you're running this business. That's kind of weird. And when I told them I was going towards finance, they're like Steve, you're a creative, you like to draw, you like art. How can you go after a degree that's so quantitative and so numbers focused when you're this crazy creative? And therefore I decided to go down a dual path and get a degree in finance and in marketing. I also believe that getting a degree in marketing was a great idea because I was going to continue to be an entrepreneur, and what better skill set can you develop than learning how to market and sell your products and services? So that was my path finance and marketing.

I went through all the courses. I busted my butt, I made a ton of sacrifices, I was studying late at night, I was going to the library, I was doubling down on my education, I was doing all the scary stuff and, look, there are times that I wanted to just like quit and give up in sheer exhaustion. So if that's where you're at, if you're burnt out with school. I get it, trust me. I reached that point a hundred times, probably a hundred times a day sometimes, especially after eating my two Taco Bell chicken burritos in the school food court over and over again to try to save money. You know, I got a little burnt out with school, but I just stuck with it and I persisted, and that was my path. But let me just pause here for a second and talk about grades. Grades do matter. Here's the thing Nobody in my family went to school. Nobody pursued a college education. So that wasn't the path that my family members took.

So therefore, when I was in school, the only reason why I went to college or one of the main reasons why I went to college, I should say is because I was dating a girl at the time and her mom encouraged me to go to school. She's like Steve, what are you going to do after high school? I was like I don't know, I got this business. I might do this. I don't know what I got this business. I might do this. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm 17, 18 years old at the time, and she said you should go to college. And I was like what, go to college and I was like, okay, well, my girlfriend's going, so I'll just fill out the application as well. And I decided to go to college. That was my decision point for pursuing higher education.

Now, high school was kind of boring for me. A lot of the classes were super boring and I was mischievous and my upbringing was a complete mess. My home life was a mess no fault to my mom, but there's just a lot of crazy things going on and therefore I was really rebellious. So in school I didn't pay attention, I didn't put the effort forward and I didn't get the best grades in high school. I mean, they weren't terrible, but they weren't like straight A's Like I could have achieved if I really put my head down and focused on the books, which I should have done. But remember, nobody told me hey, you're going to go to school, you should pursue a degree in finance, you're going to need really good grades, and that's what I did. That was a huge limiting factor with schooling. That was a huge limiting factor with schooling. Now, the good news is I was able to reverse my path and get really good grades when I went back to school. More on that here in a little bit.

But I could tell you, if I could give you any advice. If you're in school right now, I would say skip the partying, skip the hanging out with friends or whatever it is, and just go through the short-term pain necessary to get the best possible grades out there. Okay for you, I mean, you're only competing for yourself Now. Sometimes topics in finance didn't come easy to me, but I was the one who was at the library later than anybody else, and maybe I wasn't the smartest person in my class, but I was the hardest worker. So that's my encouragement to you is get the best possible grades, because it's going to open up so many doors Now. Granted, now that I have my degrees and I have my MBA and so on and so forth, when I'm presenting a proposal to a new client, it's not like they say, hey, send me your transcript or what was your GPA in college. But going through that path, getting good grades, opened up so many doors for me later on in life. So that would be my encouragement to you Just do the hard things, skip out on all the shenanigans and all the time-wasting activities and just focus right now, because it will pay huge dividends later on in your life. Now that's me speaking to my younger self, and maybe you'll hear some wisdom in that advice there.

Okay, going back to my journey, here I was. I was a junior in college. I left school. I took my teacher's advice, which was never let school interfere with your education, and I took off, packed up my truck and I drove back to the Denver metro area and I pursued my business. So here I was, growing my business. I realized I had this huge gap and then I went back to school.

I was a couple semesters away from graduating with a dual degree in finance and marketing and at the last minute and I don't know what it was, but I started looking at some accounting classes and I thought you know what, maybe instead of getting a degree in marketing and keep in mind this was after I did a study abroad program in Costa Rica I went through all the marketing classes. I was literally like a few classes away from getting a degree in marketing I decided to pivot and extend my college education and pursue a dual degree instead in finance and accounting. Now I remember my first accounting classes. They were terrible. I couldn't even understand debits and credits. I was so confused and maybe it was me. But also, looking back, I wonder why do teachers make accounting and finance so complicated? That's why I do Boosting your Financial IQ, that's why I do this podcast, that's why I have courses on my website, because I believe there's a simpler way to teach the language of money. But that's beyond the point. I was so confused with concepts of accounting and I thought, oh my gosh, maybe this was a terrible idea. Maybe I should have just stuck with finance and marketing. But I'm glad that I did that.

And then, when I finished and I got my degree, I reached a critical point Because when I was in my final year of my undergraduate studies, I went through the recruiting process and I was trying to get a job in public accounting, because this was the degree and the path that I was pursuing and more on that later. I'm going to talk about career paths here in just a minute. But I was trying to get a job my last year of my undergraduate studies. I thought I had an in. I knew the managing partner of one of these regional firms. But the problem was it was 2009,.

Right at the height of the financial crisis, the economy was in turmoil. All of these accounting and financial professionals were losing their jobs. They were getting cut from Wall Street and other firms and things were slowing down and therefore, at the last minute, these accounting firms narrowed their hiring and therefore a lot of people didn't get jobs, including me, which was definitely a blessing at the time. But I remember I got this rejection letter from this firm telling me that yeah, you know, you're this great candidate. Unfortunately, you don't have what we're looking for. Blah blah, blah, blah blah.

I took that really hard. At first I wanted to just like break down and cry because I thought I had the in with this firm, like I said, because I knew the managing director. So what I did is I printed out this offer letter and I framed it and put it on my wall and I was like, okay, this is not going to stop me, I'm going to keep moving forward. So I had to decide how is I going to move forward? I didn't have a job. I had a degree in accounting and finance, but I needed to figure out what I was going to do. So that's when I decided to go back to school and get my master's in accountancy. I wanted to take things to the next level.

Now this is a really difficult time in my life because I was trying to decide whether I wanted to pursue a career in finance, which was not looking super good because the economy was completely destroyed at the time. Like I said, and so many people in finance who were way more qualified than I was and they had more experience, they're being laid off. So if they're going to get a job, trust me, a green newbie coming out of school with a finance degree was definitely not going to get a job, especially with me being older and my background being non-traditional. So I decided, okay, I'm going to go back to school, but should I get a degree in finance? No, I'm not going to do that. Let me strengthen my skill sets in accounting. And this is my whole thought process.

So I met with a few mentors and one person would say you should get your master's in accounting and someone else would say you should get a master's in taxation. And I was like, wow, okay, well, those are two totally different paths, but the school I was pursuing, the University of Denver, offered both. I could get a master's in accountancy or a master's in tax and since I had this philosophy of always doing the harder thing, tax seemed like the right path because I had no clue how taxes worked. It seemed very mysterious, very complicated, and I thought, okay, well, maybe this is a niche that I wanted to carve out for myself. So I filled out the application and, seriously, I was so close to checking that little box that said, hey, I'm going to get my master's in taxation.

But then, at the last minute, I met with another mentor and he gave me great advice. His name's Dave and he said Steve, think about this If you go down the path of tax which is not a bad path, okay, if you're listening to this and you're considering tax as a career path, it's not bad. Okay, it's good. We need people who can do taxes and you can be very successful in this area. But for me, this is just my experience, my journey. He said, steve, if you go down the path of tax, you are going to pigeonhole yourself because you're always going to be known as the tax guy. So it's really hard to go from the tax guy to the CFO or to go from the tax guy to some other management position. Now, it doesn't mean that you're locked in and you're doomed and you can't get out of it. Okay, this is just one person's opinion. But for me I was like oh, wow, yeah, you have a good point. He said if you get a degree or a master's in accountancy and you go into audit and you learn how to audit financial statements, how to read financial statements, how to work with them, how to make strategic decisions based on them, then your whole world is open up and you could go down a variety of career paths, which I'll explain here in just a little bit. And that's when I decided to get my master's in accountancy and keep it a little bit more broad. And I'm when I decided to get my master's in accountancy and keep it a little bit more broad, and I'm glad I did.

Now, between the summer when I graduated and when my master's program started, I was in full-blown education mode and I decided look, I'm going to do the hard thing and I'm going to start studying for the CPA. Now a lot of my peers are like I'm not going to get the CPA, or they thought I need a break from school. So I'll do that when I'm in my master's program, or when I'm done with my master's program and I get into public accounting, then I'll start studying for the CPA. For me I was like no, I'm in the groove right now. I've already experienced all this pain, so I'm going to keep going. So I busted out three of the four sections of the CPA. I took the test. I studied my butt off in the summer, seriously.

I was in the public library. I remember in Highlands, ranch, colorado, I was looking out the window and I would see all these people at the park having a great time and here I was like crying to myself at the table like I can't go outside. It was so beautiful outside. And here I was in a library and oftentimes I thought what the heck am I doing? But I'm so glad that I did that. I busted out those three modules or sections, whatever. And then I started my master's program at the University of Denver and in the first quarter I finished up the fourth section. So I had everything completed for the CPA. I just needed to finish my master's degree at the time and that would allow me to get my actual license. So I was like, cool, okay, now I'm all set. I doubled down on my education once again.

At the time I was going to school for my master's in accounting. I made a career change. No longer was I doing my landscape business. Instead, I just launched my consulting company called Cultivar. So here I was getting up super early in the morning meeting with clients, doing client work. I would skip away in the afternoon to go to class. I would eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some pretzels smushed between the bread. That was my dinner. And then I'd go. I would eat my peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some pretzels smushed between the bread. That was my dinner. And then I'd go to the library after my classes were over. I would stay at the library until it closed. I'd walk back to my car in the dark late at night, just to drive home to catch a few hours of sleep, to do it all over again. And this was my life. Okay, it's not super glamorous, but I did it. And I'm so glad that I went down this path because I was able to get really good grades, because I put the effort in.

And then, when it was time to graduate with my master's in accounting, I went through the recruiting process. I got offers from all the big four public accounting firms and regional firms and I had a ton of options. Remember when I was talking earlier about getting good grades? Yeah, that's exactly what I'm talking about Now. That's not to say that I'm anything special or I'm this smart person. I just worked really hard and I worked harder than a lot of my classmates and that allowed me to succeed.

So after graduating, I decided to take a job with Ernst Young they're one of the world's largest public accounting firms and I jumped right in working with companies, learning how to read financial statements, learning how to audit financial statements, and I learned a ton of skills along the way. And that's when the genesis for my consulting firm really came to life, because I realized there's a major gap between strategy and finance. And that was the beginning of Cultivar. Before, when I was in my master's program doing consulting work, cultivar was just an idea, but it really formed and it took shape in public accounting, like I said, when I realized there's this gap between strategy and finance. But without my comprehensive education in accounting, like I said when I realized there was this gap between strategy and finance, but without my comprehensive education in accounting, finance and marketing and learning strategy and go-to-market positions and all these experiences, everything wouldn't have come together nicely like it did and I wouldn't have launched Cultivar, which I still run today, which is a company that turns around and grows other organizations. All right. So that's my journey.

But it doesn't stop there, because when I was at Ernst Young and I was doing public accounting and I had my CPA, I left there. I pursued cultivar full-time and then, shortly after that, I decided look, I don't want to just stop here with my education and I don't want to be known as the CPA, as the accountant. So I went back to school. I got my degree from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. It was an MBA with an emphasis in international strategy, and that was the end of my formal education. But, trust me, my education has not stopped since then. I'm a voracious reader, I love to learn things and I still pick up finance books and I read through them because I'm a nerd and I want to continue to boost my strategic and financial IQ. All right, so that's my path.

So let me get into the nitty gritty now that you understand my background, and provide a little bit more context to Adam and for you who are still listening. All right, so check this out. If you are trying to decide what path to go down finance or accounting let me just break those two degrees down, simply, if you go down the accounting path, you're going to learn the ins and outs of debits and credits, trial balances, the general ledger, and you'll understand how numbers get onto the financial statements. And that was a huge motivating force for me to go get a degree in accounting, because if I wanted to be strong in finance, because really I wanted to go down the investment banking route, that was my plan and that was my desire.

Before the economy blew apart, I realized that I needed to understand where the numbers were coming from when I was building these financial models. So, accounting, you're going to be doing the debits and credits, you're going to be working with the general ledger, you're going to be recording what happened, all right, and then you're going to be compiling financial statements like the income statement, the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows, and all those things are really important to understand. Now the finance path you could go into personal wealth management, you can go into money management, you can work on Wall Street, you could go into investment banking. There are a variety of careers which I'll talk about here in a minute, but generally with finance, the main difference is that finance is going to be more forward-looking. In other words. It's almost as if finance is about taking the numbers, that accounting prepared, and then building forecasts or models to make decisions from there.

So that's why I decided to combine finance and accounting together, because I wanted to understand where the numbers were coming from. I didn't want somebody to just send me the financials and then build my models off those financials without understanding, okay, what's in this line item right here called impairment or goodwill, or how did this account balance go up or down here and what was the detail in the transactions behind this number? So I wanted to understand the story behind the numbers. That's why I took a dual path. You don't have to necessarily take a dual path, but that's what I did and it was extremely helpful. That's why, in this podcast, I'm constantly talking about the story behind the numbers. But that's primarily the difference. I'm going to get into the careers here and the differences between accounting and finance in just a minute, but that's really the main difference that you need to understand.

So you just have to decide which path you want to go down and what is the purpose of your degree, the intent of your degree. And look, I work with some people sometimes where I hear from people in the audience and they'll say Steve, you know, I just want to go and get my degree and it's like that's fine. You could go to a school and take this accelerated path and maybe the school isn't super accredited and sure you can get a degree that way, that's fine. But you have to ask yourself what is the desired outcome? What is your intent? If you just want a piece of paper, then sure, go to a school like that. But if you want to learn something, if you want to build skills, go to the best school that you could possibly get into. That'd be my advice. Like, why waste your time? If you're going to do three, four, five, six years of schooling, you might as well put the effort in and go to the most challenging, difficult program that exists out there so you can stretch yourself. Side note there. All right.

So that's the main difference between accounting and finance. There are career opportunities with both paths. I would just say for me learning how to read financial statements has been a major game changer. But then what's been the fuel on my fire of success is being able to read financial statements but then build models and make decisions and do forecasting all finance functions because I have that dual degree. So let's talk about career opportunities and what you can do with your degree. So if you go down the accounting or the finance path, let's start with finance. The first thing you could do is you could get into corporate finance. This is where you manage a company's financial activities, including capital budgeting. Where you manage a company's financial activities, including capital budgeting, acquisitions and financial planning. Here's some rules.

You can become a financial analyst. In financial analysts, they assess financial data to help businesses make informed decisions. They prepare reports, they forecast trends and they evaluate investment opportunities, and this can be a really great starting point for your career. When I was the CFO of a fintech company, we had financial analysts on staff and they provided the insights and the information that I needed to make bigger strategic decisions for the company. So this role is really important and you can learn a lot about a company. But you're going to be taking those financials that the accountants. But you're going to be taking those financials that the accountants prepare and you're going to be analyzing them from there. That's a financial analyst. You could be a treasury analyst, so these professionals manage the company's liquidity, investments and risks related to financial activities. So think about cash. A treasury analyst is going to be performing activities which helps to manage a company's cash.

You can also become a CFO, as I did, and it doesn't mean that you have to come up through the accounting route. You could come from the corporate finance route. So CFOs they oversee all financial operations, strategy and reporting and they ensure the company's financial health and sustainability is there and strong. Now I think it's a huge advantage for CFOs to understand accounting. You don't necessarily have to, but think about it. If you are a CFO and you're in charge of all accounting and financial functions and you can't read financial statements or you can't answer a question about debits and credits, that could be a limiting factor. But that's the path of corporate finance and there's so many other jobs in that area. But you can go down that path and be very successful.

The next path, which is very sexy to me and this is the path I wanted to go down like I said, the economy blew up. I got married, I had kids, I was living in Denver. There's not a lot of investment banking in Denver, but I always had dreams to just work on wall street, be a workaholic and just go crazy in the world of investment banking. I know that that sounds sick as I say it, but that's where my heart was in the past. Okay, so investment banking it's a lucrative and competitive field that involves raising capital for companies, governments and other entities. There are a variety of careers. Here are just a few. You could become an investment banker.

These professionals they advise clients on mergers, acquisitions and capital raising strategies, conducting financial analysis and market research. It's funny my brother wanted to get into investment banking and he was interviewing with a lot of investment bank firms in New York City and I remember meeting him out in New York and we were meeting with some investment bankers because I too wanted to get into that field. And I remember going into one prominent investment bank I'm not going to give their name away, but I remember meeting with one of their employees. He looked so exhausted and run down, he was completely pale. He looked like he slept under his desk the night before and I thought, oh my gosh, is this the life of an investment banker? But just be aware and it's not true in every firm, and I think some cultures are changing out there but investment bankers work a ton of hours. So if that's not for you, investment banking may not be the path, but it's very fast paced, is very competitive. You can be very successful. You can make a lot of money in that field, but just expect to work a ton of hours right. So that's investment banking, but really cool.

Buying companies, doing mergers and acquisitions, raising capital that sounds really interesting to me. Okay, the next path is you can do equity research as an analyst. This is where you analyze stocks, bonds and other securities to provide investment recommendations to institutional and individual investors. You can get into private equity. Working in private equity involves investing in private companies, managing portfolios and strategizing exits for maximum returns. And look, I play a part in this field to this day. So, even though I didn't go down the traditional investment banking path or private equity path, I still do mergers and acquisitions. I've purchased multiple companies. As a CFO, I've advised a lot of companies on exits or doing other types of transactions, and in the private equity space, I've also played in that arena.

So you can see here you can go down a variety of paths and you're not just stuck and destined towards one final outcome or final career. There are a lot of different ways you could go, but I just want to point out but that's investment banking. Another path you could go down with a finance degree is asset management. So asset management professionals manage investments on behalf of clients to achieve their financial goals. So here are some roles A portfolio manager Portfolio managers oversee investment portfolios, making decisions about asset allocation and investment strategies. There's also the fund manager. The fund manager manages mutual funds, hedge funds or pension funds, striving to meet performance benchmarks. Or you could become a financial advisor. Financial advisors provide personalized investment advice and financial planning services to individuals and businesses. All right, so that's the asset management space.

Next, we have accounting and auditing. So if you go down the accounting path or I also know people that get their degree in finance and then they get a job in accounting, but it's not as common I also know people who just get an accounting degree and sometimes they can transition their way into finance. It's just a little bit harder, but look, I believe you could do anything and there's no limitations. So just because you get a degree in accounting doesn't mean you can never get a job in finance, or vice versa. Just know that it's a little bit tougher, but here's some jobs in accounting and auditing. So accounting and auditing is fundamental to business operations because it ensures financial integrity and compliance. Here's some roles.

You can become a CPA, a certified public accountant. They perform audits, they prepare tax returns and they provide consulting services to ensure financial accuracy and compliance. That's one path. There's the internal auditor. Internal auditors evaluate and improve an organization's internal controls, risk management and governance processes internal controls, risk management and governance processes. Or you could become a forensic accountant, specializing in investigating financial discrepancies and fraud. Forensic accountants work with legal professionals and law enforcement. So that's the accounting path.

You go into accounting, you go into the private path and just work for a private company. You could go into public accounting and provide accounting services for a variety company. You could go into public accounting and provide accounting services for a variety of companies, both public and private. It doesn't mean if you go into public accounting you're only working with public companies. It just means you're working for an accounting firm who provides services for multiple companies, versus going down the private path where you just go find a job at an individual company in their accounting department. Either path is good, because the thing I do like about public accounting is that you get exposure to a lot of companies and you get to see how financial statements work across industries and that can be really, really valuable. It's super helpful for me. So that's one path there.

The other path you could take is the financial planning and analysis path, which is known as FP&A. So FP&A professionals analyze financial data to guide strategic decisions and improve business performance. You can become an FP&A analyst and these analysts prepare financial reports, budgets and forecast, providing insights to support strategic planning. This was my key person when I was in FinTech. I was a CFO and I hired an FP&A manager and she was great. She provided a lot of the forecast and a lot of the models that I needed to make better decisions, so she was my right-hand person. So going down the FP&A path can really position you well in a company and you could be rubbing shoulders with senior management because you're building the models and the forecast, which are oftentimes tied back to strategy and strategic thinking. All right.

Another role in FP&A is financial planning manager. So managers oversee the FP&A process, coordinating with various departments to align financial goals with business objectives. And then next there's the business analyst. A business analyst uses financial data to identify trends, inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement within the organization. All right, beyond FP&A, you can get into the field of risk management. Risk management professionals identify, assess and mitigate financial risks. Some jobs may include a risk analyst, a credit analyst and a compliance officer. All right, so that's risk.

I'm not going to get into the details of that. Because I want to get into the details of that? Because I want to get into the last one, which I think is really cool and exciting, which is entrepreneurship and consulting. So if you have a passion for innovation and independence, financial literacy can pave the way for entrepreneurship and consulting careers. So, as an entrepreneur with a solid understanding of finance and accounting, you can manage your business's financial health, attract investors and make strategic decisions. This is huge. I've shared this in other episodes.

If you want to go down just the normal path of life where most people go, where you work for a company, you get your annual raise and you try to climb the ladder, saving money along the way, putting aside your 10% into your 401k to reach retirement one day, hey, there's no shame in that and you can be very successful and live a great life going down that path, for me it sounds terrible because I want to be able to control my own destiny. Now some people will say to me Steve, it's kind of risky being an entrepreneur, because what if you fail? And I think it's kind of risky being in corporate America, because what if they fire you right? Or what if they lay you off? So there are risks on both sides to me being an entrepreneur and being able to control my own destiny. But obviously I'm not in full control. I believe in a higher power, but I like having control every day of waking up and deciding what I want to do, what I want my company to look like and who I get to work with.

And I think there's huge upside in business. Look, you can put your money in stocks and if the market performs according to historical performance, sure, you can achieve annual returns of call it, 9%, but in business you can achieve returns of 20% or 30% or 40%. I mean, the upside is so huge. There's so much opportunity in business. But if you don't know the language of money, if you don't understand how financial statements work, if you can't build financial models, if you can't read a forecast, then you're really going to be limited. You could be successful, don't get me wrong but you're going to leave a ton of money on the table.

Why do you think I do this podcast? Why do you think I'm so passionate about the programs that I offer? Why do you think I do a YouTube channel teaching concepts of finance? Because I want you to be successful. I want you to learn these things because it's going to make all the difference in your life. All right, life is short, so go for it. Build the skills that you need. All right, beyond an entrepreneur, you can become a financial consultant. This is where you provide expert advice to businesses and individuals on financial planning, investment strategies and risk management. I don't like to consider myself a financial consultant that's the field that I work in but I'm more of a partner to businesses than a consultant. But that's what I do. I mean, I go in and I turn around and I grow companies, and I do that through my system and through my technology that I have at Cultivar, and it's been a great career, so you can learn so much and you can be very successful in that field. And finally, this is kind of off the wall, but you could become a business development manager. These managers identify growth opportunities, they develop business strategies and they foster relationships with partners and clients, and if you have that financial background, you can become a real powerhouse in this space as well.

All right, kind of a long episode, but I wanted to get it all out there. I wanted to share my story about schooling and provide some insights about career, but here are my final comments. There's no path. There's no like right or wrong path that you can necessarily go down. I think you're gonna be divinely guided as you go. That's just my opinion, whether you believe in a higher power or not. That's just my opinion. You're gonna go down a path. Doors are gonna open, there are gonna be pivots, there are gonna be failures along the way, some doors are gonna shut. Those are doors you shouldn't be going through anyways and things will work out.

I like to stress, I like to plan, I like to set goals. I'm type A. So for me this is really hard to hear myself say this because, look, I haven't always taken my own advice, but I believe that things work out. Now, in the process, you have to build the skills, you have to put in the time, you have to get the experience. But so many of you reach out and you're like 20 years old and you're trying to figure out what you should do with life, as if the one decision is going to destine you down one path and you're going to be stuck.

Sure, if you make certain decisions, like if you go get that master's in taxation and you become a tax person, it's going to pigeonhole you and it may be harder for you to pivot, but it doesn't mean you can't go back to school. And, who knows, maybe you want to go get a degree in AI or in tech and radically transform yourself. You could do that. Remember, I started as an owner of a landscape company and here I am advising companies, turning around businesses and working across multiple industries. So there are so many paths that you could go down.

I would just say put in the time, put in the work, put in the effort and really learn these skills and invest in financial skills, because there are so many different career paths, as you can see, that are available to you when you know how to read financial statements and understand the story behind the numbers, all right. So that's what I have for you. Please keep reaching out. Adam brother, thanks once again for prompting this episode. I'm sure a lot of people will get value out of it as well, and if you have any topic ideas, you can always reach out to me or, if you want to just say hello or give me any type of feedback, you can always connect through LinkedIn or through Instagram or my other social media channels. I'm also putting out videos on YouTube, so be sure to check those out, or you could always send me an email. Steve at byfiqcom. I hope you have a great week and until next episode, take care.