I was living in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, while working for an investment banking firm headquartered in Manhattan. For convenience, I flew out of Bader Field in Atlantic City to LaGuardia Airport from my second home in Ocean City. It might sound like a cushy gig when I write it that way, but it was not. I was under severe stress just trying to survive day to day. My first marriage had already failed due to the stress of this lifestyle.
My manager came up with the idea that I should start public speaking and publishing. I thought it was a dumb idea that would add more stress. This was pre-internet, and all publishing was on paper. Most speakers and writers had significant experience. I was a kid in business school. My first article was published in a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, business weekly newspaper early in 1985. The topic was flexible qualified benefit plans for small businesses. Eventually, that became the focus of the first half of my career. I became a regular columnist for a sister publication. I met reporters for other major publications, and they occasionally called me for comments in their articles.
By the time that online technology became mainstream, I had written over a thousand pieces of tax advice. Years later, I sold many of these to an early dot-com company. I enjoyed opportunities for paid public speaking on tax planning and a contract to record tax lectures for a university’s business education program.
I was forced to take years off from this in mid-career to recover from an injury, but writing became an important part of my cognitive therapy. At one point, when I was still unable to work and struggling with tasks like getting dressed, a judge said that he read my recent online tax publications and I seemed fine to him.
Now, of course, it is a different world. I am also different. I can no longer quote tax codes and citations from memory. Sometimes when researching a tax planning topic online, I find one of my own articles that I have no memory of writing. My primary work changed from technician to client strategist and coach. I am grateful for the journey.