Belmont University

Accountants are from Mars and Entrepreneurs are from Venus

Imagine moving to a foreign country where the people speak a different language from your own. While you may be able to get by for a while without learning the language of this country, you will be severely hampered. Asking for and receiving simple information will be a tedious and frustrating task. For example, assume you want to go to a movie. How do you get to the movie theater? How do you order a medium box of popcorn? What are the actors in the movie saying? More complex tasks are even a bigger challenge. Imagine trying to rent an apartment. What does the landlord expect from you as a tenant? The contract she is requiring you to sign is completely unintelligible to you. Even an interpreter will only help so much. Your interpreter can translate, but the process is slow. And it would be impossible to rely on your interpreter all of the time.

Accounting is called the “language of business.” Much of what is communicated about a business is done in this financial language. And yet to many entrepreneurs this is a language as foreign to them as the language was to the traveler in this story.

This summer I am learning this "cultural experience" from the opposite perspective. I am teaching our required graduate Entrepreneurship course. But instead of teaching it to our MBA students, I am teaching to a section that has only graduate students in our Master of Accountancy program. As I teach them about entrepreneurship, I now appreciate that many of them experience my world of entrepreneurship as a strange and confusing place.

Their world is order and precision. Mine is change and chaos. Their world is historic measurement of what has happened. Mine is the hope and dreams of what might be. Neither is better or worse, and neither is right or wrong. And in today's entrepreneurial economy we need each other more than ever.

We teachers always like to say that we learn as much from our classes as do our students. This summer I know I am learning much more than my students. Given the importance of entrepreneurs really knowing and understanding their numbers, I know that what I learn from my accounting students will help me to better prepare my entrepreneurship students for the for their frequent and critical trips into the Land of Accounting.


Posted by Jeff Cornwall on July 1, 2008 06:40 AM |

Comments

Hi Jeff:

Great piece. I too have witnessed the difficulty some accountants have communicating with some entrepreneurs. I think every entrepreneur should be required to read, "Finance and Accounting for the Non-Financial Manager." That is a great first step to learning the language of accountants. Thanks again for a great piece.

Birdied by: Allan Webb | July 1, 2008 12:19 PM

That's one of the best titles I've seen for a post. Having read the book with my wife recently, I know that learning the language and the communication style of others is a key part of success in anything you do. I look forward to reading about your experience.

Birdied by: derek | July 1, 2008 04:38 PM

I am currently enrolled in the entrepreneurship class with other accounting students. For me, this class is bringing a very practical aspect of accounting to me. I have worked with many individuals who see the world as an entrepreneaur, and I hope to be an entrepreneaur at some point myself. The first few classes have addressed what the entrepreneaur works through when developing their business and this knowledge will help me advise them and most importantly understand what the businessperson wants for their organization.

Birdied by: Tina McGill | July 2, 2008 10:07 AM

Dr. Cornwall -
As one of your acct students, I am starting to realize that part of the frustration between the entrepreneur and the accountant is a basic approach to life. Entrepreneurs are well-equipped to muster up resources to answer questions on the fly. Accountants require all the supporting evidence before committing to an answer. The difference in processing speed is like the fable of the tortoise and the hare. The challenge is getting us accountants and you entrepreneurs to jog along together!

Birdied by: Carol Dawson | July 3, 2008 01:16 PM

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