Charting my Own path is harder than I thought

At the age of 19 I decided to go a different direction after hating school and dropping out of my mechanical engineering degree. 

This led me to working at one of the most rewarding careers of my life with children with attachment disorders. I learned so much and I will forever be grateful for that three years. 

Off and on I took college classes from 2012-2017 before finally giving up in 2017. My heart wasn't in it. 

I launched my bookkeeping business in 2016 and decided to go all in on that. I've held 1-2 jobs briefly to help support myself but for the most part I've been successfully self employed for the last 7 years. 

I look back though and don't feel like I've mastered anything. My clients are low maintenance. My cost of living is low. 

I've grown too comfortable. 

So this year I signed up for college again. This time I have scholarships to cover the entire cost of tuition and even a little bit of living too. 

What's keeping me going even though I dread each assignment? 15 years from now I want to be the expert in my field. 

I want to be the one everyone comes to because I have domain expertise and I've been in the accounting industry for 25 years at that point. 

Most importantly for me, I want to be standing at the top of the food chain. In the last few months, people in the tech industry have been receiving $100 million a year pay packages. I believe I heard of $1 billion for a 4 year commitment. 

That got me thinking, what would I have to do to be offered that large amount of money? 

I've heard of people selling their businesses for $100 million. But earning $100 million a year requires a completely different set of skills and knowledge. 

You see, to earn $100 million selling a business would require about $15 million a year in profit. The multiples change anywhere from 3x to 15x profit. 

For me that would mean about 1,000-2,000 bookkeeping clients. It wouldn't be easy but the right system could make it happen. 

But to earn $100 million a year? I would need to learn new skills. I would need to run a vastly bigger accounting firm doing billions in revenue. It's possible. Mergers and acquisitions. Buying clients. Having thousands of partners. 

But boy would that take work. On the other hand, I can offer something like accounting software. Or software helping smooth the way for bookkeepers to run their own firms. 

There are good options out there but there always room for something new to shake up the market. 

Regardless of what I do, my journey is taking me on an additional 15-20 year journey. I look forward to seeing where I end up.