I suppose it’s old news already, but David “MacSparky” Sparks has discontinued his law practice to focus fully on his technology blog. In the announcement post, Sparks outlined his reasons for the change, some of the challenges he’s faced in the process, and some of the things he’s looking forward to.

His post resonated with me. Not because I can look back at 28 years of accountancy practice. Not because I’ve juggled the life of a professional and creative for 15 years. Not because I have a big audience and clientele that would allow me to make this sort of decision.

The resonance hits me simply in his professional stature. Lawyers, accountants — they’re the same sort of career. I’m at the very start of my practicing career. Sparks is at the very end of his practicing career. Opposite ends of the spectrum, but entirely related to one another.

Am I going to end up looking back at my 28-year of accountancy wondering if I should have dove head deep into writing?

Scary question.

Other points of resonance include:

Concerning money, the law is the sure thing, and MacSparky is more of a bet. Continuing to make a living as MacSparky requires me to continue to make outstanding products that people want.

There are two certainties in life: death and taxes. I chose to service the taxes portion of that cliché. Programs like SimpleTax and TurboTax may well harm part of the taxation business, but it’s unlikely high-value tax planning will be completed by a robot in the near future. For me, accountancy is the safe bet. And I’m young enough to be able to adapt into the betting areas if I need to.

Also:

Considering my law practice, I also realized that being a lawyer had become a comfortable part of my identity. Perhaps too comfortable. My recent post about being and doing did not arise from a vacuum. Moreover, being a lawyer for me is safe. I’ve got an excellent group of clients that take my advice and pay their bills. I could easily practice law for the rest of my life with little risk of not being able to make a living.

Part of my identity? How can it not be? I sign 99% of my emails these days with “Josh Ginter, CPA”. It’s literally my “name”.

The folks who give up the professional life for the life of a creative make the most noise. It doesn’t happen often. It usually starts with discontent in the professional realm and inspiration in the creative realm. That’s an easy story to write.

What you rarely hear about are the professionals who have both a professional career and a writing career and who chose to pursue the professional career only. Those stories don’t get written (because there’s no writing career to put it out there!). Even less is known about the ultimate outcome (though we can make our guesses).

Not that I’m quitting writing.

I’m just hear to say Sparks’ announcement resonated me in a very particular way. A way that has me… intrigued, perhaps. He’s not the only lawyer to give up law and pursue writing full-time, after all. I wonder if I’ll look back at my professional career the same way in the years to come.

One concrete thing I took out of Sparks’ accompanying video: The idea of sharing unique professional workflows. I don’t read about others using Windows 11 on the latest MacBook Pros in a professional context all that often. I’ve gone down some technologically risky paths in the last few months and have a lot to share. I think it’d be fun to show some of that off.

Congratulations to David Sparks on his retirement from law and on the beginning of what is hopefully a fruitful creative career. Sparks hosted a workshop for the Focus Academy last week that I had circled on the calendar for awhile. It didn’t disappoint.