Dr. Gayle D. Beebe; President, Westmont College is quoted as saying “Have the experience but miss the meaning.”
What does this mean? It’s possible to go through important experiences—but fail to understand what they truly mean or what they should teach you. The deeper idea behind it, according to Dr. Beebe, Experience by itself is not enough, it only becomes valuable if it is interpreted, reflected on, and understood.
Many businesses go through the experience of tax notices, audits, and cleanup projects—but miss the underlying meaning.
I see this regularly.
A company receives a sales tax notice. They resolve it. They file going forward. They move on.
But nothing actually changed.
The notice wasn’t the real issue—it was a signal.
- A breakdown in tracking economic nexus
- A disconnect between operations and reporting.
- A system that can’t scale with growth
Experience alone doesn’t create value—interpretation does.
If you miss the meaning, you repeat the problem. If you understand the meaning, you eliminate it.
At The John Ellis Company, An Accountancy Corporation, we focus on identifying root causes—not just resolving symptoms. Because long-term tax efficiency and audit defensibility come from understanding why something happened, not just fixing what happened.