<story><title>So, you want to learn bookkeeping</title><url>http://www.dwmbeancounter.com/tutorial/Tutorial.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dontscale</author><text>Accounting is the language of business. If you go into business, you should either know it or be willing to learn. It&amp;#x27;s not good enough to have someone specialize in it for you unless you want to be handed your ass when it comes to anything regarding business valuation--which concerns more than raising capital and m&amp;amp;a. For a business with resources, capital allocation is perhaps the most important concern and accounting is the toolset you work with.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>spinchange</author><text>Excellent comment. Keying on this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt;For a business with resources, capital allocation is perhaps the most important concern and accounting is the toolset you work with&lt;p&gt;Warren Buffett, arguably the most successful capitalist ever, says when it really comes down to it, a CEO&amp;#x27;s job is essentially one thing: Capital ( or &amp;quot;resource&amp;quot;) allocation.</text></comment>
<story><title>So, you want to learn bookkeeping</title><url>http://www.dwmbeancounter.com/tutorial/Tutorial.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dontscale</author><text>Accounting is the language of business. If you go into business, you should either know it or be willing to learn. It&amp;#x27;s not good enough to have someone specialize in it for you unless you want to be handed your ass when it comes to anything regarding business valuation--which concerns more than raising capital and m&amp;amp;a. For a business with resources, capital allocation is perhaps the most important concern and accounting is the toolset you work with.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>edanm</author><text>I disagree. And I&amp;#x27;m pretty sure many people have started successful businesses without learning accounting. What usually happens is that they&amp;#x27;ll learn the important parts on-the-job, which is I think the best way to learn most things if you&amp;#x27;re anxious to start a company.&lt;p&gt;That said, I kinda agree with the point that knowing this stuff, at least to some level, is 1) very valuable, and 2) something you can&amp;#x27;t totally hand off to a third party.</text></comment>