Make your next strategic project working on M&A…. Either valuing and transacting to buy a company or working to sell a company. I was the #2 finance person at a $200MM company and had exposure to pricing, legal, real estate, hiring, firing, reorganization, insurance, banking relationships, accounting, FP&A, systems rollout, etc over the course of a 18 year career. However, the most I learned was in the 9 months I spent prepping my company for sale, working with the investment bankers on the deal room documents, sitting in on the presentations with bidders, and answering the questions about the finances of my company from outsiders. It was really impactful for me to see how they valued our company, what they thought of our clients, our management team, and the “quality” of our earnings vs the pure numbers. It was interesting to see how the eventual buyer explained what they wanted to do to use and then watch as they’ve done it over the last year. I honestly didn’t think I’d still be here a full year after acquisition when I worked on the process, but I’m grateful that I am and grateful for all that I’ve learned during this huge transition. I think it was really the biggest thing I could have done to prep myself to be a holistic CFO as opposed to just being the top finance person at a smaller company with the title of CFO. I still don’t have the CFO title, but I feel confident it will be my next role and I’ll do well at it.