Last year we lost my Father, he was a chartered accountant and made it to 86 years old.  He was still working for a few of his long-standing accounting clients into his final couple of years.

He was brilliant with mental arithmetic and like many old school accountants could quickly add up a whole column in his head and get the result faster than most of us can do it with a calculator.

About 20 years ago he had a series of strokes and for a period of time he was unable to work.  He could think clearly, but one side of his face was hanging a bit and he couldn’t use his writing arm.  Later he managed to train his body better and learned to write using the other (right) hand.

But while he was in hospital most of his clients needed their year-end accounts doing.  Heather my Stepmother sat with him in hospital, he talked her through the whole process.  Not being a big computer user she wrote out every set of accounts, and then every invoice by hand.  She has lovely handwriting too, and everyone got their accounts on time.

Once he was home the joke was that there was never a year where his clients paid their bills faster!

It makes me think about being in love with the “craft” of your business, even down to becoming an ace at adding up.  And the power of the story, his temporary misfortune and the personal touch of the beautiful hand-written invoices, to really motivate the people around you.