This Bet I Made for Me

IMGCAP(1)]Fairly recently, I asked for your help to win a wager I'd made on the profession's behalf. Basically, I bet the nation at large that I could prove that accountants were interesting, passionate people—and you rallied beautifully to the cause.

Over 20 accountants submitted pictures and personal stories to our inaugural Accountant of the Month contest, and a total of over 500 votes were cast to give us a top five list, from which our editors picked a winning Accountant of the Month: Darlene Finzer, a principal with Ohio-based 

Rea & Associates, a Top 100 Firm. She is a member of her nephew's go-kart-racing pit crew (this is not the soap box derby, trust us) and a passionate farm-safety advocate. Plus, she raises donkeys. How many donkeys?

"North of 50," she told us.

I think that's pretty interesting, and so did the slightly shady characters with whom I made my foolish bet. To fully convince them, I showed them the rest of the submissions: the would-be Olympian, the parachutist, the parasailer, the roller-derbyist, the guy dressed up like the Cat in the Hat, and so on.

Case closed: Accountants are not boring, and my kneecaps are safe.

The bet I made for you paid off.

But not with money.

Sure, there was a quiet sense of satisfaction, and I'm very pleased to be able to celebrate Darlene and accountants everywhere.

But I would also like to make some money.

So, having made one bet for you, I'm now making a bet for me, and I'd like your help. I have bet that I can find even more interesting accountants, so we're opening our Accountant of the Month contest again, and I want you to submit your pictures and stories on our Facebook page (look for the little AotM tab) for next month's contest.

You say you submitted already? That's all right—submit again. In fact, keep submitting until you win.

If you haven't submitted, get on it. And then make sure that all of your friends go on Facebook and vote for you once the voting period begins.

Here's the deal: We're going to keep running this contest until we run out of interesting accountants, by which point I hope to have won enough to retire. So the sooner you submit, the sooner I can retire.

Thank you for your support!