I love what I do. Intervening on behalf of my clients in tax audits, or helping people shed crippling debt, allows me to (1) draw on prior professional experience at the IRS and elsewhere, (2) use my detective and people skills in finding and negotiating with the right auditors and revenue officers, and (3) helps me solve people’s problems and move them forward in their lives.  As a small business owner, I also get complete discretion over my time and, of course, full responsibility for all my successes and failures. I’m sure I’ll be doing this for another 20 years, at least.

However, every now and then, I daydream about alternative careers. I recently read an article about the razor manufacturer, Gillette, and how it has half a dozen highly-trained men who have a gig testing razors and shaving techniques. http://www.wsj.com/articles/for-cutting-edge-analysis-few-come-closer-than-this-elite-shaving-squad-1460323470  They leave home and stop at Gillette headquarters on their way to work, where they shave. Their daily shave is done according to a strict protocol; they are testing different shaving creams and razors against each other, so every shave has to be done exactly the same way. These guys know about shaving. “Way cool,” I announced to the wife and daughter, both of whom dismissed my excitement with barely-concealed eye-rolling.

But I was serious. About a decade ago, I started using shaving soap, rather than canned lather. I like the closer shave, and the soaps generally smell better and feel somehow richer. As I read about the Gillette shavers, I envied that they get to try new soaps and razors on a daily basis. They get to be experts in shaving. Me – I invest in one cake of shaving soap, and it lasts 18 months. Neither my wife nor daughters appreciate how silky smooth I get my face – it’s always too bristly for them, no matter what I do. I suspect at Gillette, the shave scientists get well-deserved praise.

Another thing I like about the job is the attention to process. At the IRS, I learned the importance of process: thinking about the steps toward getting a job done. In my law firm, even though each case is different, I always look for the uniform elements so that I can create a check list and get all the steps done.

May 2, 2017

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