This month's guest post is from my business partner (and partner in life...my wife!) Roslyn Rozbruch. Her great advice is on learning, and the value of the process. Thank you Roslyn!

I love learning new things, but I don’t care much for the process. In other words, I like the knowledge and experience I have at the end of something new I take on, not the beginning of it. That’s because at the beginning of anything new, whether it’s within my business or my personal life, my initial feeling is one of discomfort. It’s uncomfortable to learn new things. Not only that, it’s messy — I’m not sure what I’m doing, I make mistakes, I do something wrong … But once I go through doing that new thing, I am freed of that uneasiness.

For example, when Michael and I first started Roz Strategies, I decided to take on the bookkeeping part of it. We have an experienced bookkeeper, but I wanted to do most of the footwork. The first few months, it took me two days to close the books. I was clueless to what I was doing. It was beyond uncomfortable — it was painful figuring out where these numbers went. Lucky for me, our bookkeeper, Barbara, is one of my closest friends, and a patient teacher. It would have been so easy for her to push me out of my chair and just do it herself, but she sat next to me and taught me how to use Quickbooks. Then one day — about the third month in — I had an Eliza Doolittle moment and by George, I just did it!

Understanding what I was doing was the best feeling in the world, and it was also empowering. Now, I kid you not, we close the books in two hours and then go out to dinner. A year-plus into our new business, I feel great about doing projects I have experience in, and I still feel uncomfortable starting new ones. But I don’t let it stop me. I just do it.

And the reason I’m bringing this up is because I hear it from many of our new members who are just starting to practice tax resolution — they are afraid of messing up, of making a mistake, of taking on too many clients… The good news is that just as I have Barbara to guide me in bookkeeping, you have Michael guiding you in your tax resolution practice. And he has put a lot of systems in place to make your practice and casework easier.

Additionally, aside from your business, I’m also telling you to not let discomfort stop you from any new challenge you’d like to take on. Don’t let fear be your guide and stop you from pursuing something new that you’d like to take on, be it business or personal.

Find the right tools, whether they take the form of a written guide or an in-the-flesh mentor; talk to someone with experience or take a class; whatever you do, implement your plan! You might be uncomfortable, but at the end, you’ll feel great!

Thanks Roslyn for your “food for thought” on learning and the reminder of having the right teachers! If you are not yet part of my Tax and Business Solutions Academy, be sure to visit www.rozstrategies.com to learn more about how we help CPAs, EAs, Attorneys and other professionals looking to build a booming tax resolution practice Get in the Business of Growing Your Business™!