Art of Accounting: My 600th and final column

This is my 600th weekly column being posted here. I am very grateful that I haven’t missed a week and that the ideas came, and the columns flowed. The first column was supposed to be one of about two dozen autobiographical experiences with takeaways for readers. I wanted to write what I’ve done with some sort of takeaway that would enable me to pay back my luck and success.

I wrote a dozen short columns and sent four or five to editors I knew with a memo of what they were about and how I wanted the written style to look like. I “developed” a particular writing style in a way that I thought would convey my feelings at the time of the event I wrote about. I gave this a lot of thought and even researched oddball writing styles to see if I was doing something totally off the wall. Specifically, I looked at William Faulkner and Gertrude Stein, but there were many others. With the confidence I was right, I sent them with a “demand” that I only wanted them published in that style. They all turned me down, and these were editors I knew and was writing for.

I was leaving an Accounting Today sponsored conference in 2013 with a few people when I was introduced to Michael Cohn, now the editor-in-chief of the web edition of Accounting Today. I gave him my spiel, and he said he would look at what I wrote. After I sent him what I wrote, he edited two of them into a more conventional style and sent me a draft of what he wanted to publish. Actually it read better with his changes so I gave the OK. 

Since then, I have collaborated with Michael on 599 other columns, requiring regular contact. He is easy to work with, smart and a good editor/writer, and we never had any conflicts. Of my original 24 columns, about a dozen were published, with the others pushed aside for more relevant or timely topics, and the ideas kept coming. I have an inventory of over 200 column ideas (on a spreadsheet of course) which all seemed great when I thought of them, but newer ideas kept coming up. My inventory has many great ideas, but the ideas I used were better. Occasionally Daniel Hood picked up some columns for the monthly print edition and also occasionally some went viral on LinkedIn. But I seem to have developed steady followers who also email me comments or ideas or who call me with specific practice management issues they have.

Before these 600 columns, I posted 250 weekly answers to questions colleagues asked me on www.CPAtrendlines.com that Rick Telberg edited, and 202 of these were made into two books Rick published. Also, my first 156 columns here were published in a book, also by CPA Trendlines, and about 100 of the columns here were included in my Memoirs of a CPA book that I self-published at amazon.com. I also used many of these 850 columns with practice management takeaways in my over 350 CPE and MAP programs for CPAs. Additionally, my Art of Accounting columns were awarded first place for a continuing series category by Folio Magazine in 2018, beating out PwC, which came in second. 

In addition to these 850 MAP columns, I have written and posted 1,175 blogs at www.withum.com/partners-network-blog. The focus of those blogs is to address issues my clients have. That blog is in its 13th year and during the first eight and a half years I posted twice a week and then switched to once a week. I haven’t missed a week there either. I also used that blog to write about nonprofessional interests I have, trying to share things I enjoy with the readers. I am also in my sixth year of writing a weekly Torah lesson that I email to over 550 friends. In addition to these weekly postings, I write a fair amount of technical and other articles and have been teaching a course at either Fairleigh Dickinson University or Baruch College continuously for the last 10 years. And I maintain some client responsibilities. I have been pretty busy.

I like writing and like having to come up with a topic each week, and I like how I examine and dissect everything I come across looking for something fresh to write about. However, things are changing for me and time is getting short, and I have other projects I want to pursue, including a series of two-minute videos for YouTube and Instagram that are easily accessible on mobile devices and new age media, a series of mini e-books, and some topics I want to research and write about. 

Posting a weekly column for 16 and a half years here and on CPA Trendlines provided a platform for me to be influential in the profession and to help move the careers forward of many starting their careers in public accounting. That was a personal honor I am very appreciative and proud of.

Something has to give and hitting No. 600 here seems like a good time to move on to some new things. I’ll still be around and, if something strikes me where I want to offer or inject my opinion, you will be able to read it here. But for now, I will take a halt to delve into some new projects.

I thank you for reading these columns and the many thousands that contacted me with whom I interacted one-on-one these 11 and a half years and five years before them when I wrote the Q&As. You can also search the AccountingToday.com database and as long as you put “Mendlowitz+topic” you should be able to find some columns I posted about that topic. Try to be as specific as possible and you should be able to get something that would help you. 

I am not going away. I am still at Withum and still at my laptop and will reply to everyone who emails me with a practice management concern they have. I will either email you something I posted or included in a speech handout, will call you, or will set up a short Zoom meeting to discuss your issue. I’ve been doing this my entire career and do not intend to stop now.

Thank you for reading these columns and being a part of my life the last 11 and a half years and a big thank you to Michael Cohn who has become a good friend.

All the best,

Ed