The Adam Feuerstein Podcast
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The Adam Feuerstein Podcast
The Emotional Spark Behind Every Entrepreneur: What Truly Drives Us to Build
Every founder has a moment. A spark. That emotional edge where logic ends, and the leap begins.
In this episode, Adam and Michelle drop the script and share the real story behind their entrepreneurial journey. From getting fired to building one of the first online accounting firms, Michelle reveals how uncertainty can become a launchpad. Adam opens up about choosing ownership over predictability and explains why true freedom isn’t a perk — it’s the point.
They talk risk, motherhood, mission, and the magnetic pull of building something that actually feels aligned.
It’s not just strategy. It’s sovereignty. And it starts with a spark.
Listen now and start building a business that reflects who you really are at totalsumgame.com.
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I know sometimes when we think back like.
Speaker 1:There's a way to measure it right. You measure the risk, you measure the decision. Is this a responsible decision? Is this a reckless decision? Is this going to serve my ends, my family, my mortgage, my credit cards, whatever? But there's always a component that is emotional, I think that for most people kind of drives you over the edge into committing to entrepreneurialism. Welcome to the Total Sum Game podcast today, where we're talking about the emotional drive into entrepreneurialism. Welcome to the Total Sum Game podcast today, where we're talking about the emotional drive into entrepreneurialism. And who better than the most beautiful woman in the entire world, successful entrepreneur, incredible business mind? She happens to be my wife, michelle is here to join me to talk about this.
Speaker 2:I think you're a little biased.
Speaker 1:I'm not biased at all, I only tell the truth. That's all I do. So today we're doing things a little bit different. We want to bring you something with a little bit of insight outside of just AI. It's obviously our favorite topic, it's a huge part of TSG operations, but, as my wife and I are together today, we want to talk a little bit more outside of that envelope about entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1:Michelle and I have literally been working next to each other, shoulder to shoulder, side by side, every day. Now for what? Six years, seven years, actually. That's how we met, as most of you guys know. So, anyway, nothing better, no better person to seek for wisdom than her here and her and I together to talk through this, because it's a huge part right Entrepreneurship it's numbers, it's accounts, payables, receivables, balance sheets, p&ls, it's taxes and all the fun stuff that we get into on operations and everything else we have to do to make a business come together, start it and make it successful.
Speaker 1:But there's an element that binds all those processes, all those steps together. It starts with the dream, goes all the way into fruition, and that's the emotional drive behind it. Everybody has something. I don't care how rigid they claim to be, everybody has an emotional driving force, something that touches deep inside your heart. So that's what we're here to talk about today. Obviously, I have one, and she's sitting right next to me. She is my partner in life and in this family, and that is the most important thing in my entire life. So it's hard not to be emotional, but she'll do a much better job than I assure you throughout this podcast today. So what we're going to talk about, michelle, is the spark of entrepreneurship, love to hear about a time in your life, what started like, what got you down the path, the idea. There's an impetus, but there's a driving emotional force behind starting an accounting firm. Ironically, I don't know what that is for you.
Speaker 2:So what lit the fire for me for starting my own business back in 2009 was getting fired. I mean, that's really what kind of sparked for me the idea that I had to figure out what to do next. My parents owned a business, and so I grew up in that environment. I knew what it took to start a business and and run a business, and and for me, it wasn't really hard to know that that's the next thing I wanted to do, but it was scary. It was scary to think about. I could go get a job and figure out you know what to do there, and that was kind of the easy part.
Speaker 2:I had a lot of really great experience the opportunity that I had right now, standing at the crossroads, of saying, okay, right now I could go start my own business, which is risky. I don't know how long it's going to take to make money. It could be months, it could be years, or maybe I'll fail. My plan B was well, just go back to work. I'll have a great salary, and I'll never again have the opportunity unless I get fired again that I have right now of of choosing to go down this road because I'd be too afraid to quit a job and not have a salary. So that was really what lit the the fire under me, that you know. I had two roads and a choice to make, and one which I felt was really risky.
Speaker 1:I know sometimes when we think back, there's a way to measure it right. You measure the risk, you measure the decision. Is this a responsible decision? Is this a reckless decision? Is this going to serve my ends, my family, my mortgage, my credit cards, whatever? But there's always a component that is emotional, I think that for most people kind of drives you over the edge into committing to entrepreneurialism. Right, and I know for me, as an example, the idea that when I have a job, my future is more or less laid out. If I do a good job, right, and I can't stand that, Like I'd rather have my hands tied behind my back, shoved in a pine box and buried alive, versus if I'm an entrepreneur, every single day is an opportunity and there's freedom in that. Right. Like, I can do anything that I want to. I can run this business a certain way, a different way, close it, do something else, the world is kind of your oyster.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was one of the reasons why I chose to do that, because I went through all of those kind of thought processes of thinking what are the pros and cons?
Speaker 2:And for me it was at the time I had two little kids and I knew that I could work half the time and make the same amount of money. I was in the job I was in, so that was kind of first thought that would give me more time to be a mom and to be able to take care of my family. But then the next, the next thought that I had, which is exactly what you're saying, is that when you start a business, your future is unlimited. When you're working for someone else, your future is dependent on how much they pay you and and it's always a risk that's never something that's for sure. You could get fired, let go, the company could go under at any time, and so, although it seems less risky, it never is. And so when you start your own business, you're in control of your destiny, and that's what's completely different about being an entrepreneur versus being an employee.
Speaker 1:There's something we kind of skipped over. You said talking about having two little kids, who, of course, we know very well these days Nate and Bailey. So that's a calculation. I have two kids. If I stay at home, I can. It's more efficient. But there's an emotional component to that. There's something else as a mom, right, that you want to do, that you want that drives you into that decision, that gives it weight, right? There's a calculation to it. Yes, it makes me more efficient, I can be around my kids, I'm more available, so on and so forth. But there's, it takes more than that to make a decision where you're going to take the risk of heading out on your own. So you can have that.
Speaker 2:For me, it was not just making it more efficient. I wanted to be able to spend more time with my kids. I didn't want my kids to be raised by someone else and me not be there. I wanted to be more of a part of their lives, and so that was a really huge part, and, ultimately, what it ended up with. After I started Mergex and started this online accounting firm in a time where there was no online accounting firms is, I looked to hire other women that were in the same position as I was to be able to allow them to have the same opportunity to be able to work from home and still be a mom and take care of their kids, but yet still have a career which we don't get to do a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah right, leadership starts with vulnerability. Vulnerability starts with the need to contribute to others. Have something there that you offer that is unique to you, to your business, to what you're trying to do. So other people are drawn to that, and the motivation for them to be drawn is that they get something of value out of it uniquely from you than anywhere else that they can go, and I think that's very, very powerful when you're talking about people again, numbers, pnls, all that stuff but there's this bond that has to happen in, in in varying degrees of depth, with the people that work for you and you to to get their loyalty, their buy-in, uh, and to ensure too, like we talk about here, that there's mutually both parties mutually benefit from the, from being there, whether it's the employee or a business owner, whatever it is that those people get something outside above and beyond a paycheck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's that's why, when I started the company, of course the people were really important to me, but that was always part of our culture too not just the people that we worked together and we created that culture of kind of taking care of each other and making sure everyone kind of had what they needed. But that was also really what drove the work that we did Like we were a different kind of an accounting firm than any other accounting firm out there, and that was always part of just who I was and wanting to serve people. And it wasn't just about numbers, it was something that, every time we hired someone else and brought them into our team, is to really help them to understand that, when you are in charge of taking care of a business's finances, that is what is so important to them, because their business is their life and so their numbers mean everything to them, whether they're making money or not making money. For us to be able to take care of that for them and something that's so personal to most people their finances and to be able to provide them with the information that they need that's what's going to move their life forward and that's what's going to give them peace, to be able to sleep at night because they know that this part of their business is taken care of.
Speaker 2:So we always came about that from the perspective of this isn't just about some numbers and printing out a P&L and sending it to the client. It's really about this is their life. Your business is your livelihood. It funds everything, it provides for your family. It's your future. And when you look at the things that you're doing for someone as a service, as really just helping them have a better life, it becomes much more rewarding. I think that's really ultimately, with TSG. What we're doing here is that's where that because you and I are both the same like really wanting to serve people that's where what we're doing really comes from, that drive and that desire to really be able to serve people in that way.
Speaker 1:Well, it's the ultimate payback Again, dollars and cents. I get it and it's important. It's critical. Businesses need income to operate. We need profit so that we can pull money from those companies, support our families and do all the things that we do for ourselves and the people around us.