The Exuberant Accountant - Scott Heintzelman

Of all the ideas for blog posts I’ve written during the past three years, the subject of this post never made my editorial calendar. 

I was hired by McKonly & Asbury 22 years ago, right after graduation from Messiah College. I always envisioned myself staying until I decided to retire at some point in the future. However, God has a way of changing our plans and making them his own. 

I have been acquainted with the Martin family of Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe, (i.e. Martin’s Potato Rolls) for several years (and sit on the Messiah College Board of Trustees with owner Jim Martin) and have come to respect the values they represent and how they have chosen to run their faith based family business. I was taken completely by surprise when they approached me in December with an amazing opportunity to join the company as their Vice President of Finance and Administration. 

After a great deal of prayer and soul searching (and talking with the real boss – Mrs. Exuberant Accountant), I have made the decision to join the Martin organization effective October 3rd. In this position I will have the opportunity to be involved not only in finance, but also employee development, mentoring, and business advising – three areas that regular readers of this blog know I am very enthusiastic about. 

In transitioning to Martin’s, I will be attempting to fill the huge shoes of a great man named Mr. Ronald Gipe. Ronald has accomplished some amazing things in his career and specifically during his time at Martin’s. I hope to build on the impressive foundation that he laid while serving this business and family. 

Click on this link for an excellent video that tells the story of this exceptional organization. 

As I leave one of the great accounting firms in the country, I have a sense of sadness in leaving so many special clients and coworkers. I have been blessed with numerous impactful relationships in my life and I will miss serving my clients and working with our team members here at the firm (many of whom I hired and mentored – I love you guys). 

Along with the difficult decision to leave McKonly & Asbury came the bittersweet decision to end the Exuberant Accountant Blog. After posting twice a week for three years, this will be my last post. Therefore, I have some folks that need a shout out. 

First, I need to thank two people who were integral to the launching of this blog: Jim Rodgers and Michele Golden – two of the best marketing minds I know and two folks who had a huge impact on my decision to launch this blog and offer me advice during the early days…thank you so much! 

Thank you Phil Clemens, Dale High, and Barry Shaw: Three faith based family business owners who I admire so much that I wrote each blog post with these amazing  leaders in mind. 

I also want to thank Terry Harris, the Managing Partner of McKonly & Asbury for his belief in me three years ago when I approached him with the desire and idea to launch the blog during a time when blogging in the accounting industry was a huge, unknown risk. You always believed in me and allowed me to push us forward and try new things. Thank you for being willing to take a chance on me 22 years ago and during many other times of my career. 

I want to thank the many thousands of subscribers and readers of this blog. Each time I posted, I could always count on many of you to reach out with positive encouragement, stories to reinforce the blog topic, and amazing discussions. I will miss this interaction as I felt it provided me great insight into how business leaders were thinking and what challenges they were struggling to overcome. I always felt these exchanges gave me wisdom and better judgment as I was advising seasoned executives and mentoring next generation leaders. 

Many of you have asked about the book which I am writing, titled “Five Steps to Strengthening Your Family Business.” I do plan to finish the book and I am happy to announce that my good friend Tracey Jones of Tremendous Life Books has agreed to publish the book. We hope to have it published at the end of the year. Thank you for your continued support Tracey!! 

A huge thank you to my amazing assistant, Dawn, you have been such a special talent, writer, editor, supporter and most of all a dear friend. I will miss working with you every day. 

Finally, my lovely wife Gaye. Thank you for being the most amazing helpmate a person could ever hope for. God gave you the patience of Job and many times you needed it being married to me. As I write this, tears are streaming down my face and I just want to publicly thank you for always supporting me. Thank you for saying “I do” 22 years ago. I love you with all my heart and I am not worthy of your amazing love!!!!

Once again, my friend Phil Clemens (CEO of Clemens Family Corporation (i.e. Hatfield Meats) has allowed me to share with you his monthly email. It seems to me that in these tenuous economic times, when many employees are feeling vulnerable about many aspects of their lives, including their employment, this article is especially timely.

Just by incorporating some of these ideas into the workplace, a smart business leader could not only benefit from ideas suggested by their employees, but increase morale when employees they see their ideas actually being utilized. 

“The seven most important words a leader can say are: I don’t know… what do you think?” – Bill Marriott 

Good leaders think they have to have all the answers. Great leaders may have many answers but know that when people are asked for input, you not only get some great ideas – you get buy in. People need to be needed – not used. By asking this question “I don’t know…what do you think?”, you get to know what your team is really thinking and if they have caught the vision of where you want to go. 

Bill Marriott knew that secret of getting people engaged. He knew with every person who worked in the organization that he got a free brain with every pair of hands. Hands may do a lot of work, but when you engage the brain with those hands – you get people to work smarter and not just harder. 

Last week President Obama visited a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio and made the following statement, “Chrysler has paid back every dollar and more of the investment we made during my watch.” Oh really?

Now I do not mean to make this a political blog, but I must point out misleading statements by our elected officials when the truth can be easily proven.

My father always said, “Figures don’t lie, but liars do figure” and clearly President Obama is doing some fancy figuring!

Here is the basic math.

Chrysler received $14 billion in four separate loans:

• January 2009: Chrysler receives $4 billion loan from TARP.
• January 2009: Chrysler Financial receives $1.5 billion from the Treasury Department.
• May 2009: Chrysler receives a $1.9 billion debtor in possession loan from the Treasury Department.
• June 2009: Chrysler receives a $6.6 billion loan from the Treasury Department.

Total loaned to Chrysler: $14 billion.

One of my favorite songs is Tim McGraw’s (Tug McGraw’s son for you old timers like me) Live Like You Were Dying. The song is about a man who has a friend that is diagnosed with a terminal disease and decides to live life to the fullest. The moral of the story, of course, being that we each should live our lives like each day matters. 

Recently, I received the “Phil Clemens Thought for the Month” and I wanted to share his thoughts about living. 

Tom Landry - “Today, you have 100% of your life left.” 

How can I have 100% left? Easy, every minute you are destined to live is still in front of you. The bigger question is: What will you do with it? 

The old saying, “Yesterday’s gone, tomorrow may never come” is absolutely true. So often we waste valuable time thinking about what has happened and how we might have done things differently. However, that is “water over the dam” and you can never bring it back. But, “you have 100% of your life left.” What will you do with it? 

But, “tomorrow may never come.” True, we have no guarantee that tomorrow will come. But, right now as you read this, you have 100% of your life left. What will you do with it? 

You have a choice – live it to the full, live like a fool, or something in between. Since you have 100% of your life left – make the most of it. I urge you to live it to the fullest. 

I like to ask leaders this question – if your doctor told you that you have one year to live, what would you do? It is amazing that many would do something very different from what they are currently doing. Landry reminds us that you “have 100% of your life left.” That might be a year, it might be a day, and it might be 50 years. Who Knows (God does!) – Make the most of it – Make your life count! 

Landry’s statement is so simple – but extremely profound – “100% of your life left!” Now do something about it – TODAY. What will you do with it?