Making the World Better – One Client at a Time

I am a polymath, whose interests span chemical engineering, medicine, biotechnology, business, and management, among other areas. Some of my inventions/developments include a dialyzer, a dialysate, a neurosurgical drill, a respiratory inspirometer, colon electrolyte lavages, urinary catheters, cardiac catheters, water reuse systems, drinking water system, ammonia degrading microbes, toxic chemical reduction via microbes, onsite waste water treatment, electronic health care information systems, and bookkeeping and accounting programs.

I had been doing income taxes since I was 10 years old. I saw my uncle’s business tax return and could not believe he was being charged so much money for so little work. I told my father I wanted to do them and would charge less than $40 (this was 1960, folks!). As far as I could tell, he also had his accountant prepare the taxes and when he saw two years in a row, I was spot on, he was hooked.

I only did his taxes and my firm’s over the next years until the 1990s. Many of our clients over the past two years had gone belly-up because they did not file their payroll taxes or they did not prepare their income taxes. We suggested that they add those services to our contract (we were product designers and process advisors to them). About half of them took our advice.

I recognized that we needed to obtain some additional training and credentials to make our other clients comfortable with this new service. That is when I ran across a company that was providing index card training for folks who wished to get certified as enrolled agents.

An enrolled agent? What was that? So, after completing my research, I realized that this would be a perfect credential to add to my arsenal, to better service our clients’ needs.

So, I bought those index cards. Blue, yellow, and green. (Maybe this is a good time to explain that I prepared a slew of index cards from which I studied to pass my PhD exams decades earlier.) And, I studied my backside off to prepare for the Special Enrollment Exam (SEE).

I took the exams in Baltimore and have been an enrolled agent ever since. It was one of the best investments I have ever made.