Some things are worth celebrating
This past month, one of our team members (Eloa Ortega) passed her CPA final exams. We celebrated her achievement at a recent team huddle. It’s no easy feat. When I wrote that exam (er, a version of that exam almost 30 years ago), I recall wanting to quit many times. I remember the struggle of balancing studying and working. I remember sacrificing nights out with friends so I could study. I remember failing practice exams over and over, making me feel like I would never pass the real exam.
For Eloa, it’s one of those “Once-in-a-Lifetime” achievements. The kind nobody can take away from you. Sure, the CPA overlords can take away our CPA designations, but nobody can take away from the achievement of completing the program. Like other once-in-a-lifetime accomplishments, it’s not about the CPA itself, it’s about who you become through the struggle and sacrifices of achieving it.
The same week Eloa passed her CPA finals, we celebrated another huge accomplishment. We officially were awarded “Great Place to Work – Certified Canada”. This is a confidential/anonymous survey of our team members (read: we can’t mess around with the results) and our average score was 94/100, qualifying us for “Best Place to Work in BC” and a bunch of other “Best Places” awards.
We’ve always done our best to create as positive a culture as possible. Not just because a strong culture is directly correlated to strong financial results, but because it always felt like the right thing to do. Of course, we’ve dropped the ball and made more mistakes on the culture front than I can count. We’re far from perfect, but, much like studying for the CPA finals, we kept at it, even when we wanted to quit. And there has been many times where quitting felt like the best option.
I hope being awarded “best place to work” is not a once-in-a-lifetime achievement, the first time getting this award certainly feels like it. It’s not the award, but who we became as a bunch of individuals inside this company that matters. We became a group of individuals who cared enough to create and be part of a great culture. Thanks to everyone on the team for caring!