Professor Elam

The 12 steps to conquer accounting seems like a great guide to be successful in the study of accounting. While this guide was designed with accounting students in mind, it could also easily be applied to other subjects. One of my favorite parts of this guide is the first step: doing a self-assessment. I think many people do not like doing self-assessments. This is because I feel that people either don’t want to know their areas for improvement or they don’t think they have any areas to improve upon. Both of these attitudes are not going to help you become a better student, a better professional, or even a better person. It vital that we take an introspective look at ourselves if we ever want to get better. I feel David Goggins, former U.S. Navy SEAL, expresses that with his quote “The most important conversation is the one you have with yourself.” Another aspect of conquer accounting I like are the concepts of establishing and maintaining a schedule and a routine and going above and beyond looking at power points and the textbook. This requires students to establish discipline. I feel many students dislike this thought because they feel as if they are being stripped of their freedom and free time. After all, it is much easier to plop down on the couch and watch television or play video games than it is to take a more active approach to learning. In reality having discipline can lead to having more freedom. “Discipline equals freedom” is a mantra of Jocko Wilink, an author and former U.S. Navy SEAL. The idea behind this is that if you want to have more freedom to do something you first must be willing to put in the work to accomplish the more difficult things, which requires discipline. All in all, I feel that the 12 steps to conquer accounting are a great tool for students but ultimately it falls on the student to put these tools to proper use.