Just finished my first accounting lesson. That doesn’t sound like a huge deal (okay it sounds fucking lame, don’t brag about that Justin) but I gotta say I feel pretty damn good. A) I’m an artist who is teaching himself accounting. I must be only of like 3 artists that have ever wanted to do that in their spare time. B) I think I’d be a good teacher.
So for the last few weeks I’ve been reading thrilling books such as “Cost Accounting for Non-Accountants” and “Bookkeeping for Dummies.” On the plane. On the subway. On the train. In my room. Kinda everywhere. Probably not because they’re page turners. But I have this goal of teaching business to art students and accountanting is just one hurdle I need to clear. I may get smacked in the nuts a few times trying but I’m guns make it over dammit. I’ve discovered how deep my weirdness pervades though, because I’ve actually been looking forward to it. Granted I LOVE education. I literally have an education addiction. It’s where I spend all my money as an adult. I’ve bought real estate classes, martial arts lessons, mentorships, graphics tutorials and guitar lessons in just the last year. Thousands of dollars. Spent but totally justified in my head because its making me better. I’m like a valley girl at a shoe store but in my head I’m pushing myself to the brink of unprecedented mental perfection. Regardless, it works out because I’m getting through accounting eager for more, not ready to shove a paintbrush between my ear drums.
I met up with my friend Kavon Johnson at a Barnes and Noble on 5th ave in Manhattan (555 5th ave for the creepers) and caught up, made small talk and warned him his hair was doing that black people thing again “(woofing) and that he should probably see a gardener about it. His girlfriend recently went to Italy for study abroad program so I was a little worried he might unravel from the heartbreak but he seemed like he was more focused than ever. So, confident he was mental prepared, I got into the subject. I opened up with my little presentation (which you cannot download because it is mostly content that is plagiarized to hell and back at this point.) and went through the subject from big picture to execution. What is the difference between financial account and managerial accounting? Accrual and cash accounting? Debits and credits? All these riveting mysteries and more were solved. While I threw concepts at him, I expected him to suddenly and violently fall asleep or jump over the railing but he seemed to not only follow and comprehend but his interest remained piqued. In the cab ride to our meeting point, I was racking my brain about what I was going to say. and whether I knew what the hell I was talking about. But doing the presentation, I realized how much I had adsorbed from all the sources I’d been marinating in the last few weeks. Confident in my latent teaching powers, I started delving into the execution of identifying a transaction, classifying it into accounts, then asset or liability, then debit or credit. Forced to explain it, I cleared up the process in my own head a thousand fold. I’ve heard that teaching had this effect on you, but it was awesome to finally experience it. I had to distill it into a very logical, very sequential series of events so that there was no way to get lost or confused without knowing what to do. While it may not be crystal clear to Kavon now (an hour isn’t enough time to fully grasp something like that) it is to me, which is a new feeling. We did example problems together, then I made him do it because I realized as an education junkie that unless you try it yourself you have no idea whether you learned anything or not. (Plus my mom’s a teacher and she taught me the formula: I do. We do. You do.)
At the end we tried to apply what we learned by doing a real life example using facts from his business so far like T-shirts order, legal fees charged, and more. The results made us both realize we didn’t know exactly what we were doing but the process was super clear which was a big victory. I got a shit ton of useful ideas on how to make this useful and appealing to creative types based on our own B&N date. At the end I told him that no matter how confused he was it, it was okay because in real life the process is the only part you need to know. The rest is done by QuickBooks, which I gave him a quick tour of. At that point both of our patience for accounting was just about done but all in all it was an awesomely successful first tutoring attempt. Waayy better than I thought it would go in my head. I still have a lot to learn, polish and present but I have more confidence than ever now that this business tutor thing is one I can pull off given I put the work in. Thanks Kavon!. Hope you use this shit!
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