Carlis is a new NINJA CPA Blogger.

Are you who you want to be?

Who is a shining example of accomplishment to you: Your hero?

It’s a big deal to be thought of as a role model, even in the slightest of ways. It means you’re standing out among the crowd and very often braving the waters alone.

I see young women everyday striving to have their investment in education pay off by pursuing their dream careers. I single out young women because not too long ago a woman’s dreams were limited.

Fortunately that has changed. Everyone is encouraged to dream and dream big. Does it require dreaming to be who you want to be?

I recently attended a forum centered around six E & Y Partners who shared their secret to success on the road to partnership. Each one was African-American; most impressive.

For anyone to become a CPA requires sobriety that lends itself to hard work. It takes even more when you come from a situation where not as much is expected or asked of you.

That is not always the case but if it is, that takes a dreamer. But dreaming is only the beginning, as aspiring CPAs well know.

To be who you want to be takes belief in action or what some call “faith in yourself”. What a beautiful phrase.

Faith in yourself is the first and most important ingredient on the journey to being who you want to be. When you believe in yourself you free your mind to all the possibilities that come your way.

Then you can pick and choose what’s right for you rather than relinquishing your right to live a life of freedom, which by the way is a God-given right and not dependent on where you live. That means no one but you can stop you, not really.

Road blocks will come but in the words of the poet Jill Scott, “my mind is free, feel my destiny, so shall it be”.

Let’s take the journey together.

The Novice NINJA,
Carlis