Random Memories
My first professional job. December 1986 I was fixing to graduate college and Jeanette and I were getting married a couple of weeks after that. I don’t remember when I began sending out resumes which were really inquiries since I had never set foot into an accounting firm/office. I really wanted to move to Florida , there was some intrigue in the ability to roll down your windows in the winter which won me over so I sent out some resumes to florida firms and some Chicago firms just in case. I got two bites from south Florida and one from Chicago. I booked a flight to Florida and set up a couple of interviews. I went to the first interview in Miami and it went well. Just didn’t know if I wanted to work in Miami. The second interview went great – it was with London Witte and company a firm that recently had many locations throughout the country but now only had offices in Indianapolis and Ft Lauderdale . The only principal partner was Ed Hirschberg who had lived in Morton Grove Illinois which wasn’t far from where I grew up. We had a lot in common . He was born and raised near Indianapolis a midwestern guy and we had a lot of similar life experiences . He took me under his wing allowed me to learn and grow as a cpa and included me in helping him directly in client work and pretty quickly put me in a supervisory role over newly hired accountants who were young like me . He had confidence in me. He sent me to weeklong continuing education seminars out of state and gave client contact and responsibilities. He treated me like he would a much more experienced cpa. I gained ton of knowledge. And when he went out of town with his wife and kids he let me use his 300zx when I was still driving my Datsun 210 wagon without air conditioning lol. He sent me to Indianapolis to learn from their more experienced staff. And Learned about life as I stayed at the Columbia hotel on the circle which was the place of state house and senators and learned to always have a suit jacket . I didn’t bring one to breakfast but they seated me anyway…..behind a pole lol oh how we learn. A lot of who I am today as a professional is because of Ed. I owe him everything