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George Stewart

Finance

George Stewart(He/him)

Owner · George Stewart Co.

BS University of Washington, MBA Seattle University

George Stewart has built a career leading teams, growing organizations, and creating partnerships across both business and nonprofit spaces — proving that strategic thinking and genuine care for people can go hand in hand. He has spent years mentoring emerging leaders and giving back to his community, so he understands firsthand how much access and guidance can change someone's trajectory. If you're figuring out how to turn big-picture thinking into a real career, George's path shows you don't have to choose between ambition and purpose.

Their story

Relationships are the engine of any business - Certfied Public Accountant

12 min

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Key quotes

“People don't ask who's a good accountant, they ask who do you do business with? And so the rapport and developing the relationships was key to growing the business.”

George Stewart, CPA & Firm Owner

“I'd set a personal goal of owning my own business and I was able to be a practitioner for 28 years.”

George Stewart, CPA & Firm Owner

“You're not using a lot of mathematical formulas. You're looking at the logic, the relationships between the numbers and how they fit together.”

George Stewart, CPA & Firm Owner

“If you're going to be successful, you don't worry about the situations where things didn't come your way. You focus in on the things that will allow you to develop.”

George Stewart, CPA & Firm Owner

“When I finally went back and finished that MBA program then it was a question of okay, what do you do next? And at the time I thought what I always really wanted to do was have my own accounting firm.”

George Stewart, CPA & Firm Owner

Career highlights

Your early jobs teach you more than you realize — even if they seem unrelated to your goal.

George started in banking as a management trainee. Years later, that experience helped him land an audit contract with a bank during just his second year in business.

It's okay to finish a degree on a nontraditional timeline — what matters is that you finish.

George left his MBA program for 11 years and returned needing only five classes. Finishing it gave him the confidence to finally launch his own accounting firm.

Relationships are the engine of any business — people hire who they trust, not just who is most qualified.

George said clients don't ask 'who's a good accountant?' — they ask 'who do you do business with?' Building rapport was central to how he grew his practice.

When you face discrimination, document it, find allies, and keep moving — don't let it define your whole story.

A competitor tried to pull four of his clients by talking them out of working with him. George got a local politician to write letters of support, and the competitor backed off.

Know what you're actually interested in before choosing a career path — curiosity will carry you further than prestige.

George chose accounting not for status but because he genuinely liked how numbers relate to each other. He said that interest is what makes someone effective in the field.

Owning a solo practice is real and financially viable — but go in with clear expectations about income and workload.

George shared that most sole practitioners gross between $300,000–$500,000, with net income around 30–40% of that — concrete numbers most students never hear.

Student summary
George Stewart is a CPA and accounting firm owner who spent 28 years running his own practice in Washington state. Before that, he built experience across banking, city government, and the private sector — proving that a career rarely travels in a straight line. He started at Rainier National Bank as a management trainee right out of college, worked in early automated banking systems, moved to the City of Seattle, then to an electrical contractor, and finally launched the accounting firm he always dreamed of owning. Along the way, he also finished an MBA he had started years earlier — closing a gap of 11 years to earn that degree on his own terms. What makes George's story stand out is how intentional he was about combining his interests with his goals. He knew from high school career days that accounting was a field where you could graduate and actually work in your specialty. He liked numbers — not because of complex math formulas, but because of the logic and relationships between numbers. That clarity about what he genuinely enjoyed helped him stay focused even as his path took some unexpected turns. George also kept it real about the challenges. Building a client base as someone who isn't naturally outgoing was hard work. He also faced racial discrimination directly — a major competitor tried to poach four of his clients — and he pushed back, got community support, and held his ground. His response wasn't to be consumed by it, but to stay focused on what he could control and keep building. For students of color thinking about finance, accounting, or entrepreneurship, George's story is a roadmap. He didn't come from a connected family or a fast track. He built his knowledge piece by piece across different jobs, finished his degree on a nontraditional timeline, and eventually created something that was fully his. His advice about relationships — that people don't ask who's a good accountant, they ask who do you do business with — is the kind of real-world wisdom that no textbook teaches. If you've ever thought about owning a business, working in finance, or just want to see what a long, meaningful career can look like for someone who looks like you, George's story is worth paying attention to.