I studied finance and accounting in college, and I worked at a massive accounting firm out of graduation.
One day I was in Starbucks going through one of my books on accounting, and this beautiful young woman came up to me and said, 'My accounting book is different from yours.' Her name was Joyce, she had a background in finance and administration and ran a surgery center. Within a short time, we were married.
You have to understand accounting and you have to understand the nuances of accounting. It's the language of business and it's an imperfect language, but unless you are willing to put in the effort to learn accounting - how to read and interpret financial statements - you really shouldn't select stocks yourself
Probably the best advice I ever got in my life was from the head of the accounting department, Mr. Hutchinson, I believe at the Glidden Company in Chicago, and he told me, 'You really aren't cut out for accounting.'
If you go back to the late '50s, there really was nothing called "academic finance." Well, there was something being taught in business schools as finance, but it really had no strong research underpinnings.
What you get out of an M.B.A. programme, no matter how much experience, is functional tools and understanding in disciplines: you'll understand economics, you'll understand marketing, finance, accounting. That, M.B.A. programmes do very well.
There is no other proposition in economics that has more solid empirical evidence supporting it than the Efficient Market Hypothesis... In the literature of finance, accounting, and the economics of uncertainty, the EMH is accepted as a fact of life.
Don't ever let your business get ahead of the financial side of your business. Accounting, accounting, accounting. Know your numbers.
My father told me when I went to college that I needed to take an accounting class. I enrolled and went the first day. I didn't understand a thing that was being said and dropped the class. I really regret that decision. I should have stuck it out and learned the basics of accounting, but I took the easy way out.
For generations of Hong Kongers, the only means of upward mobility and the only way to meaningfully contribute to society have been to obtain a respectable university degree (preferably in business administration) and a professional accreditation (in finance, accounting, law or medicine).
I really enjoy working. I really enjoy telling stories. I really enjoy acting. The idea that I would have a baby and stop doing that was unrealistic to me.
Aggressive accounting does not mean illegal accounting.
Proper accounting is like engineering. You need a margin of safety. Thank God we don't design bridges and airplanes the way we do accounting.
If you really think about the fabric of the United States, or the finance of any economy, finance is a true underpinning of what makes the economy great - if it can be done successfully, responsibly, and with a client orientation.
I don't know about technology and I don't know about finance and accounting.
I know what I don't know. To this day, I don't know technology, and I don't know finance or accounting.