The Best Advice I Ever Received

For someone who has been in the finance profession for over 25 years, it’s a big call to isolate and label one piece of advice I received as the best.

And yet here we are.

The reason I want to highlight it is because it was one of the earliest pieces of advice I received.

One the group of grads I worked with in my early career regularly laughed about.

But the one that has stood the test of time throughout my career and served me well over and over again.

What is it you ask……well first a story.

It was my first year as a graduate auditor back in 1998 and I had been given a somewhat risk free audit to run and perform.

As was the norm for my manager he decided to review the file at 5pm right when I wanted to head home. And he asked me about some of the audit evidence in the file.

Clearly he disagreed with the level of comfort I had gathered so he promptly told me

“Andrew you need to take ownership”.

This audit was his to sign off on so he had ultimate ownership.

But for him to have faith in the work I did for him and minimise these 5pm file reviews, I also needed to take ownership. And treat all my work as if I was the partner.

Take Ownership

For the next 2-3 years he would constantly drill it into me if the audit evidence wasn’t enough.

Take Ownership.

“Are you taking ownership for this audit Andrew”

Until soon enough I started hearing

“You’ve taken ownership Andrew, well done”

Which turned into us grads mimicking him whenever we went out for Friday night drinks (post an audit file review)

“Andrew have you taken ownership for the next round”

“Andrew the dancefloor is asking for you to take ownership”.

Over 25 years later that piece of advice still rings in my ears from his office in Melbourne, Australia.

And it remains the best piece of advice for anyone wanting to progress in an organisation.

Or in Life.

Take Ownership.

A simple mindset of taking ownership.

If you display it, you will gain more responsibility, you will set higher standards and your career as a finance professional will take off.

And you will be amazed at how quickly you become more commercial.