1 min readRise To Your Occasion
by Guy Gage | April 5, 2020 | Business, Client Experience, Personal Management

Interesting Times
You have heard ad nauseum the same descriptions used to describe the last couple of months. I wrote about them last week here. But I prefer to use “unusual” or “interesting” times. Words like these aren’t negatively loaded and allow you to rise to your occasion by engaging your imagination and possibility-thinking. So let’s imagine.
What if you entertained the thought that you were made for this moment? What if this actually was your time and your place to make a difference? True, you didn’t ask for this moment and it isn’t on your bucket list. But here it is and here you are. What will you do with it?
Learn From Another
One of the greatest basketball players of all time, Kobe Bryant, was posthumously admitted into the basketball Hall of Fame this past weekend. And rightly so. He was a talent who consistently rose to his occasions because he saw them as his moments to excel. One of his quotes says it well: “Everything negative – pressure, challenges – is all an opportunity for me to rise.”
If you think about this being your time in history to make a significant difference, you will find that the old constraints and barriers you experienced before aren’t so overwhelming or formidable now. Rather than seeing your career as pushing the boulder up the hill, it’s like the hill flattened out.
Your Opportunity
For instance, never before has the situation been so ripe for you to assume a different and expanded role with your clients. They have significant needs and you are specifically trained and experienced to meet them. Even if your clients never viewed you that way, this is your chance to rise up and seize the moment by filling a larger role with them.
That being the case, what do you have to do to prepare for your moment? A mind-shift? New or expanded skills? Focus and determination?
Don’t spend the next weeks simply hold your breath until things get back to normal, because that “normal” is no longer. Accept that you and your career are on a different trajectory—one that you may not have asked for or envisioned but is upon you to rise to your occasion.
Read Related Blogs:
Avoid Making Clients Feel Let Down
Client relationships vary depending on the level of trust involved - and trusted relationships have never been more important. With new technologies, changing regulations, and a shifting economy, clients increasingly look to their trusted advisors for insight and...
Ownership Changes Everything
In many CPA firms, “accountability” is treated as the gold standard of performance. But in reality, accountability is reactive because it shows up after something has already gone wrong. Responsibility, on the other hand, is proactive. It’s the difference between...
High Performance Isn’t Talent – It’s Leadership
A high-performance (HP) culture doesn’t happen by accident. It develops when enough people consistently demonstrate a high-performance mindset, take the right actions, and produce strong results - until that standard simply becomes “how we do things.” Bringing...

