My father was a pastor, so I spent a lot of time with a lot of people from various walks of life. One of his church members was a CPA. He always carried himself with self-respect and dignity. I really admired him. He stood out from the rest of the crowd — distinguished.
The leadership. There is great vision and forward thinking in place at Armanino and everyone has bought in to the strategy and the partner group has a ton of integrity. They are all ambitious, entrepreneurial and fearless about finding new solutions for clients. Matt, Armanino’s CEO, always says, “if you’re going to fail, fail quickly.” They’re not afraid to make mistakes. You just go out there, do your best and if it’s not going in the right direction you put the brakes on and pivot.
I was working in Saudi Arabia for a six-month contract and I was offered a permanent position. In the short-term it seemed fun because I could travel a lot and frequently. My family all thought I should take it and run. However, I had to think about my long-term goals and decided to come back to work in the U.S. and build my career and family here. Sacrificing world travel was difficult to turn down being only a few years out of college. Today, I think the decision has worked out well.
A Bay Area technology/SaaS firm with which I had a long tenure and was able to really contribute to their success. From a Series A VC company they had little activity or excitement when I first started with them. We went through a lot of battles together, funding and burn rate, employee turnover, to jurisdiction expansion planning. A lot of successes and a lot of failures, which led to a point where the entire finance team and I are friends to this day. I was able to be there and see them have a successful IPO and eight years later a successful acquisition. When I see their successes, it feels like I succeeded.
I’m very supportive of our people and very trusting. I try to give my team members responsibility so they can grow, but then I’m always available when it gets tough. I like to be hands-off, but collaborative. My goal is to build in them the attributes I see for future promotion and let them reach for them with me providing a helping hand.
My father, who gave me a lot of love and a lot of direction. And then there is John Elway, who was the ultimate competitor and never gave up.
