Professor Elam

Labor Day Weekend 2012

One day as an undergraduate I watched a scene I remember to this day. A student was standing in the hallway of the UT Austin College of Business office building.  He clearly was having difficulty with an accounting question in the textbook. Dr. Griffin, whose advanced accounting text was then in its fourth edition I think, happened by. The student hurriedly asked him The Question. Quickly Dr. Griffin took his unlit cigar out of his mouth, read the question and said oh, you just debti such and such and credit so and so. Having spoken he replaced the cigar, which he used to great advantage as a prop in class, and went about his way. I still recall though the student standing there looking at the text puzzled, his entire expression saying

How'd he do that?

Is there an art to mastering accounting?  What do I mean by that?  Take a look at Robin Wong's photography blog.  You will quicly grasp that Robin is an artist. Even his street shots look well

composed and lit. Why do Robin's shots look professional but yours and mine look like typical snapshots? What is the difference?  it is I think

talent

repetition

an artistic way of seeing the world

Professionals have that sense of 'how to do it.'  I recall taking my bicycle in with a flat tire. The owner of the shop seemingly threw my bike on his repair stand, spun the wheel, produced a tool from nowhere and next thing h I knew, the tire and tube were off the wheel. The whole thing had taken maybe twenty seconds, how did he do that?  Well practice helps a lot. As George Strait says, write that down.

I am interested in your take on these observations. What is the difference in the pro and the amateur, and how does one move up the ladder?

I took piano lessons as a kid and tried it again in college. I got to where I could play the notes in a recognizable fashion, but I was never a musician.  Jerry Lee Lewis plays the piano, he is a musician. He's a pro, I was just hitting notes on an instrument.