Accounting Is an Adventure in Truth and Creativity — Most Just Don’t See It

I recently had the chance to sit down with Blake Oliver, CPA, founder of Earmark CPE and host of the number one accounting podcast in the world, The Accounting Podcast. Our conversation reminded me how complex, overlooked, and meaningful this profession really is. Accounting gets boxed in. Misunderstood. But when you pull back the curtain, it becomes clear: this field isn’t just about rules or compliance.

Accounting is about pattern recognition, creative thinking, and above all, the pursuit of truth.

In this piece, I want to share a few highlights from our conversation and go deeper into my own reflections. I’ve been working in accounting, finance, and business for over 15 years now. I’ve been a CPA for most of that. And there are things I wish more people talked about, especially the parts of this profession that don’t fit the mold.

If this article resonates with you, you'll get a ton more value out of our discussion on my podcast Ambition Aligned with the episode here.

Musicians Make Unlikely CPAs, And Surprisingly Really Good Ones

One of the first things Blake and I bonded over was that we were both musicians before we found accounting. It’s not the most common pipeline, but in my experience, it actually produces some of the strongest professionals.

Musicians think in patterns. They develop a feel for structure and flow. When something’s out of rhythm, we catch it instinctively. That transfers. In accounting, we aren’t just logging numbers. We’re constantly evaluating systems, catching subtle inconsistencies, and finding logic in chaos.

Neither Blake or I pursued accounting out of initial passion, but rather, out of practicality. Blake pursued it because he wanted a stable job and found numbers and patterns interesting. I pursued it because my first business failed. When I was 18, I owned a recording studio that didn’t make enough money to survive. I didn’t know what I was doing. So I enrolled in an accounting class to understand where I went wrong. And that class turned out to be one of the most useful experiences of my life. It showed me how businesses function, how cash flows, that you can't have single sided transactions (if cash is going out the door, you have to show it's cause), what levers drive profit, how everything eventually flows to the balance sheet, and where value is either built or destroyed.

That’s why I still teach Accounting 101 and Business 101. Because these aren’t just academic subjects. They’re the foundation for understanding how business, and correspondingly the world, works. So on a much deeper level:

Accounting is the science and exploration of the truth of business.

Accounting Is a Quest for Economic Truth

This is the part I wish more people understood. Accounting, when done right, is about uncovering what really happened. Not the marketing spin. Not the legal form. The actual substance.

And the deeper I’ve gone in my career, the more I’ve realized that:

This isn’t just a technical task. It’s philosophical.

If you’ve ever tried to account for something like a SAFE or a revenue-based convertible note, you know what I mean. These structures blend debt, equity, and operating activity. You can’t just check a box. You have to sit with it. Ask why the structure exists. What economic outcome it's aiming to produce. How that impacts both current and future reporting. And how to represent it fairly without distorting the picture.

Same thing when you acquire a company. The legal documents might say one thing. But you still need to interpret what’s really being purchased. Is that deferred revenue liability real? Is the goodwill just a plug, or is it justified by customer retention? What does this acquisition mean for the future financial reality of the company? That’s judgment. That’s synthesis. That’s not something you automate away.

Truth in accounting is a real adventure.

And once you find it. once you actually understand the truth behind a deal or a transaction—you unlock something powerful. You can explain it. You can teach it. You can tell the story as it actually happened, not how someone wishes it happened. And from there, you can start advising based on reality. You can help others structure based on what actually worked, not what sounded good in a press release.

Too much of business is fluff. Acquisitions that were announced with great fanfare and strategic vision, only to fall apart because of poor post-integration. And when they go well, everyone wants to declare the strategy a success. But most of that hindsight is confirmation bias. People retroactively justify the outcome. They ignore the granular facts, the real drivers.

That’s where accounting comes in. Done right, it strips out the noise. It clarifies. It doesn’t make the story more exciting, it makes it more accurate. A company might say a deal worked because of visionary leadership or bold synergy. But when you dig into the numbers, you realize the acquired business had a unique model that benefitted from a macroeconomic tailwind. That’s not as flashy, but it’s the truth. And that truth is what lets the internal teams actually learn and improve future decision-making. It improves investor communications, strengthens integration planning, and helps avoid future missteps.

The adventure of exploring truth through accounting is what separates surface-level commentary from real insight.

And that’s why I still believe in this work.

Creativity Isn’t Optional. It’s the Job

Accounting gets this weird reputation for being boring or rigid. But the truth is, the best accountants are problem solvers and strategic thinkers. They know how to apply a framework in a way that fits the facts.

That’s not “creative accounting” in the pejorative sense. I’m not talking about hiding liabilities or bending the truth. I’m talking about partnering with business leaders early in the process to design transactions and structures that work—from both a business and accounting standpoint.

The best tax professionals I know? They’re involved on day one. They sit down with founders, lawyers, and execs before anything is signed. They shape decisions that will affect the business for years. Same goes for controllers and technical accounting leads on the corporate side. The ones who are effective aren’t stuck in cleanup mode. They help prevent messes from the start.

I’ve had to cross over from accounting into legal, tax, finance, operations, and systems work more times than I can count. And the truth is, a good CPA with range and judgment can be one of the most valuable people in the entire company. Not because they close the books, but because they help leadership understand what’s really happening under the hood.

The Problem with the Profession Isn’t the Work. It’s the System

This is something Blake and I got into during our conversation: the profession is suffering a perception crisis, and not without reason. CPA has become a tough sell for a lot of younger professionals. The Big Four pipeline has gotten so rough it’s pushing smart people away.

You go through years of education and licensing. Then you get a job where you’re expected to work 60-80 hours a week during busy season, often that extends past a season (12 month busy season anyone? Let's get away from the word season if that's the case) often for less money than your finance peers. The credential is harder, the expectations higher, the upside more delayed, and the liability elevated. And once you’re in the firm, you realize a lot of the work is done by a couple of high-performers while the rest of the team learns on the job and eats the hours.

Partners and MDs spend more time on BD than delivery, and make money from the staff who are learning on the job. One killer senior or manager is doing 90% of the work, and your paying for a team of 15. Budgets are driven by leverage, not client value. It’s no secret that most audit and consulting budgets are padded. Anyone who’s worked in these firms or hired them knows the game. And again, I’ve worked with phenomenal people inside these firms, but the model itself is what needs to be challenged.

What Saved Me Was Stepping Outside the Mold

Blake built his own firm, found a path through software and content, and eventually launched Earmark to educate a new wave of accountants. I encourage everyone to follow not just him, but his example to improve his profession.

That’s one path. Mine was different, but with the same thread of intention. I’ve worked at Deloitte, I’ve worked at Google, and I’ve advised companies on IPO readiness, M&A, revenue accounting, and process transformation. But where I found the most fulfillment throughout my career was when I focused on individuals, teams, and companies overcoming huge problems with the knowledge I've learned along the way. From personal finance for individuals to helping assess a multi-billion dollar transactions, I help companies and leaders structure transactions, understand their cash flow, avoid landmines, and act with clarity. And it's highly rewarding.

I still use my CPA every day. It’s the foundation for everything I do.

The Point Is This

Accounting is not dead. It's not boring. It's not a fallback career. It’s one of the most versatile, challenging, and impactful skill sets in the business world. And if we start talking about it that way, if we start honoring the judgment, curiosity, and integrity it requires, we can rebuild the narrative.

Check out the episode if you haven’t already. But more importantly, think about what kind of accountant, or leader, you want to be.

We need more people who can see patterns, speak truth, and solve real problems. The CPA license won’t do that for you on its own. But it’s one of the best foundations I know for doing meaningful work in a world that’s starving for it.

What Can We All Do About It?

Firms: Rethink the 80-hour model

I challenge everyone reading this to listen to the episode and really reflect on how we treat our accountants. For firms, let's rethink the culture. How do we move away from 80-hour work weeks and endless busy seasons? How do we leverage AI not to cut headcount, but to restore balance and create sustainable careers? Don’t chase margins at the expense of people. Keep the door open for the next generation. Build something better than what we inherited.

Companies Hiring Consultants: Ditch the billable hour obsession.

For those hiring accountants and advisors, stop obsessing over the billable hour. Move toward retainer, fixed-fee, or outcome-driven models. Reward what really matters: insight, accuracy, availability, judgment. The hourly model creates perverse incentives. Managers hoard teams, projects get staffed inefficiently, and honesty gets compromised. If you want better results, align incentives with value, not time.

Companies Employing Accountants: Give Them a Seat at the Table

For companies employing accountants, stop sidelining them. Bring them into rotation opportunities. Consider them for strategy, biz dev, operations, and leadership. Don’t pigeonhole them into back-office roles. Give them a seat at the table and watch what happens. I’ve seen time and again how much hidden potential is unlocked when accountants are trusted as business partners.

Schools & Boards: Raise the Bar, Not the Barriers

For schools and boards, cut the arbitrary hoops. Keep standards high, but make them accessible. Education and CPE should be transformative, not transactional (Earmark does a great job at solving this). Stop filtering for who can afford to suffer the longest, and start looking for talent, grit, and potential.

And for the senior accountants and leaders reading this, we own the culture. It’s our job to make this profession better. Let’s reward efficiency, not facetime. Let’s celebrate ethical courage, practical insight, and the pursuit of real value.

Since ancient times, we’ve played both trusted steward and resented tax collector. But when we’re devalued, societies crumble — Enron, the Great Recession, the fallout from every fraud that could have been caught with a stronger accounting backbone. We are the stewards of truth. The protectors of what’s real. The people who count the grain before winter.

Let’s take the pen back. Let’s write a better chapter for the profession.

We’ve always been the stewards of what’s real. Now it’s time to steward the future of our own profession.