“The only way to do great work is to love what you do”—Steve Jobs
February is the month of Valentine's Day, a day to celebrate love. Don’t worry, we haven’t turned this newsletter into a dating advice column, but we do want to take some time to talk about how important it is to love what you do in life…to identify those passions that wake you up in the morning and pursue them wholeheartedly.
Take for example our Founder & CEO, Joy Pearson, whose passion is helping others. In the workplace this is reflected in how she works with our clients to help them grow their businesses, set goals, manage projects, implement software, you name it…it isn’t that she loves the minutia of Yardi (well maybe she does) …but she loves helping our clients achieve greater success. Outside of the workplace you can find Joy using her time, talents, and treasure to help others in her community. In addition to some of the work F&D has been doing to give back to our community, Joy is working to launch a scholarship for high school students in Farmington, MN to honor her parents’ memory and help to foster the next generation of community-minded businesspeople. Every day Joy finds ways to pursue her passion of helping others.
Or take a look at one of our Senior Accountants, Dani Johnson. She loves her job as an accountant, but outside of work one of her passions is reading. Recently she was one of several F&D team members who came up with the idea to launch a virtual book club for co-workers who also love to read. After some conversations and planning, the F&D Book Club was born! Dani took her love for reading and created way to connect with other team members who share that passion, and we are now reading our inaugural book for the F&D Book Club! Thanks, Dani, for sharing your passion and helping to launch a new way to get to know one another while working in a virtual environment!
And finally, how about our Business Development Specialist, Jake Cordes. His passion is public service and helping his community. For 8 years he served his community on the Farmington Area School Board. In his job with F&D, he gets to work with Joy in helping different charities around Farmington and Minnesota. The community outreach aspect of his job is his favorite thing to do, and he cannot wait to serve his community again someday soon!
So, stop for a moment and reflect about your passions and those things that get you going each day. How are you living those things that make you happy in your work and personal life because you have to love what you do to do it well….
Get to Know F&D:
This month we are featuring one of your Senior Accountants, Matt Jirik in the get to you F&D section!
1. How Long Have You Been With F&D: I started on contract in March 2020, came on board full-time in October that year.
2. Education: I have a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, and a BS in Computer Science from Metropolitan State University
3. Favorite Movie: Return of the Jedi
4. Favorite Book: Slaughterhouse-Five
5. Favorite Band: The Hold Steady
6. If you could have any job in the world, what would you do? JPL researcher
7. Where is the most breathtaking place you’ve ever travelled? Neuschwanstein
8. Fun Fact About You: My 3 brothers and I are all Eagle Scouts
Pictured is Matt and his family at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota last summer.
Thanks for sharing Matt, watch for our next featured F&D team member next month!