Nineteen years ago, I returned from my family’s winter holiday, unlocked a small, empty, rented office, and started my own tax and financial planning firm.

I knew what it would take for my business to succeed. I would have to become the best financial adviser I could be. I would also have to attract enough clients, and the right sort of clients, to support a growing company, as well as my young family, since my wife was then staying at home with our 6- and 2-year-old daughters. And, at some point, I was going to have to build a staff that could take the business to places I would never reach alone. Otherwise, I would not be creating an enterprise; I would merely be keeping myself gainfully occupied until retirement. If I had wanted to do that, there was no reason to leave my former job at a big accounting firm in the first place. Read the rest of this entry »