Back in 1997, Dustin Hoffman was awarded the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the Golden Globes Award Ceremony. After thanking everyone who helped him during his career, he told a story that has a great deal of relevance to this topic.
Paraphrasing, the story went something like thisii:
“When I was doing a promotional tour for ‘The Graduate,’ I found myself flipping the dials in my hotel room one night. I came upon an interview of the great Russian- American composer, Igor Stravinsky. It caught my eye and after listening to it for a few minutes, I became spell-bounded.
“The interviewer asked Stravinsky: ‘Sir, what is the best moment for you as a composer? Is it when you have finished a newly completed work? Stravinsky pondered the question and answered: ‘No-no-no, it’s not then.’ ‘Then, is it when your agent informs you that the piece will be performed at one of the concert halls of the world?’ ‘No, no, no it is not then either.’ ‘Then is it on opening night at Carnegie Hall or The Kennedy Center, when the last note has been played and the audience erupts into a standing ovation, is that the best moment?’ ‘No-no-no. Not then either.’
“‘Well, sir,’ the interviewer asked: ‘What is the greatest moment for you?’ ‘Vell, I vill tell you. Ven I’m working on my piano in a composition, looking for the melodic phrase that vill carry the movement forward. I vill be sitting at the piano, going bee-bum; bee-bum; bee-bum. This goes on for hours, days, sometimes even weeks: bee-bum; bee-bum; bee-bum. Then miraculously, it happens. I find the note! That, for me is the moment.’”
Mr. Hoffman continued:
“My fellow actors, for me ‘the moment’ is not when I get cast in a major role in a blockbuster movie. The moment is not when I stand before you accepting a lifetime achievement award or even an Oscar. But when I am doing my ‘bee-bums’ to find the inner sole of the person I am portraying. Whether it be Benjamin in ‘The Graduate’ or Ratzo Rizzo in ‘Midnight Cowboy’ or ‘Papillion’, when I come upon the ‘Bee-Bum’ that makes that character work, that for me, ‘is the moment.’”
Well, my fellow tax practitioners, the ‘Bee-Bums’ in our profession are not found when we find the answer to a mind-numbing question in the U.S. Tax Code, but instead when we discover a way to translate and simplify it so that it can be understood by a layperson. This is the challenge that we face as tax practitioners: taking complicated principles and communicating them clearly and
effectively to our clients.
If successful, your client will feel as if something has been revealed to her. She’ll have the coveted “aha moment” where she exclaims to herself, “Of course!” While she may not “thank you” or applaud you for explaining the rule or regulation in easy-to understand terms, especially if it results in a larger tax liability, your reward will be far greater: the positive “word of mouth” that she spreads to her friends as a result of the goodwill that you created.