Austin is a NINJA CPA Blogger.

One of the questions that I get a lot is, “Why did it take you so long to finally take the exam seriously?” Painful as it may be to hear; it’s a fair question.

The answer is that I never really decided I wanted to be a CPA until now.

Sure, I have worked in a Big 4 Public Accounting Firm, I have all of the requisite course work and experience, my business is in working with various small businesses to clean up their accounting records, but until now I never made the decision to be a CPA.

Each of us in the accounting profession had to make a choice about our career path: Industry, Public, Tax, Audit, Internal Audit, etc. But, no one ever told me I needed to make the choice to become a CPA.

I finally put two and two together last year and realized that being an accountant and being a CPA are two totally different things. I had already chosen accounting as my profession. I hadn’t yet decided to become a CPA.

To become a CPA means you decide to place your exam studying before everything. Including March Madness, Mad Men, Friends, Family, and yes…sometimes you might even call in “sick” right before your exam and place it before your work.

However you choose to study…the most important thing is to FIRST decide to become a CPA.