In the interest of full disclosure, this page has virtually no business related items on it. It’s entire purpose is so that you can get to know David Staley, the person. Also, it’s largely written in the form of answers to random icebreaker questions and includes pictures because apparently most of the population prefers those over words. If you’re interested in that, by all means, keep scrolling. If, however, you just want to know what services I provide and how I can help you run your business, feel free to ignore this page entirely. I won’t be offended. I’m an accountant, after all, so I’m used to people thinking I’m boring.
Who is this guy?
David S. Staley, CPA
NC CPA Certificate #33432, issued 2/18/08
Where did I do my learning?
Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (2006)
Master of Accounting (2007)
Have I managed to convince someone to marry me and/or to pro-create?
In fact I have. Husband since 2005, which I remember because that was the year Roy Williams won his first National Championship. Father of two, which I remember because every day I’m called Daddy at least 400 times. This is us just hanging out one Sunday afternoon while someone came along and snapped a candid photograph of us. We always look like this, and it was in no way staged nor did it require 74 photos just to get one great shot.
What’s my favorite of all the places I’ve traveled?
That’s a tough one. My wife is a travel agent, so we’ve done a decent amount of traveling with aspirations of doing lots more. I’ll cheat and list a few of our traveling highlights.
Disney. Our entire family loves to visit Disney. We’ve done one Disney Cruise, two trips to Disneyland, and double digit trips to Walt Disney World. Little known fact: Disneyland (California) is the happiest place on earth, while Disney World (Florida) is the most magical place on earth. Two separate parks, two separate claims, not to be confused.
Italy. I’m not incredibly well traveled internationally. I went to Canada for around five hours in college once on a road trip to Niagara Falls. I’ve been to Jamaica twice. But I’ve spent a little time in Italy, and it was awesome. I’m not one who spends a ton of time admiring the beauty of creation, but there were some pretty spectacular views at Cinque Terre and the Dolomite Mountains. The Dolomites are the only place I’ve ever looked out at a view and thought, “nope, that’s fake. I’m in the Truman Show right now.” Did you ever see the Truman Show? One of Jim Carrey’s better pieces of work. It was no Dumb and Dumber, but still pretty good.
Phoenix, Arizona. Calling Phoenix a favorite place I’ve traveled would be a stretch, but we’ve taken to traveling to places to watch Carolina sporting events, and Phoenix was the site of the 2017 Final Four. The Heels won the National Championship, and I met Eric Montross while we were there, so yeah – Phoenix is kind of high on the list. It was also a pretty cool city. Other places we’ve visited to watch Carolina sports include:
Dallas: Lost to Texas in the first ever college basketball game in “Jerry World”
Blacksburg: Handed the Hokies a rare Thursday night loss
Houston: 2016 Final Four, which I’m still not ready to talk about
Knoxville: Just a regular season basketball win over the Volunteers
If I had to eat one meal everyday for the rest of my life, what would it be?
Not sure if it qualifies as a “meal,” but I could eat ice cream every day and never get sick of it. I come pretty close to doing that already. The picture above is “The Kitchen Sink” at Beaches and Cream in Walt Disney World. Eight scoops of ice cream, topped with brownies, pound cake, Oreos, peanut butter and chocolate chips, chocolate/peanut butter/caramel sauces, candy bars, two bananas, gummy candies, chocolate shavings, nuts, maraschino cherries, and a whole can (literally, the entire can) of whipped cream!
I’m ashamed to say our family of four couldn’t finish the entire thing, but this is me going back in for one last giant spoonful before we left.
If I can’t choose ice cream as a meal, then I’ll go with In-N-Out. Double double animal style. Or really, pretty much any burger from anywhere. In-N-Out is just such a novelty to me because I’m on the east coast where I can’t have it.
Coffee or tea?
Neither. Bourbon, water, and (if I’m feeling healthy) Kombucha.
What’s the best piece of advice I’ve ever been given?
1. Do your best and God will do the rest.
2. C’s get degrees.
3. If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?
Top 5 Movies of All Time?
1. Smokey and the Bandit
2. Ocean’s 11 (George Clooney and Brad Pitt, though the original is also good)
3. Shawshank Redemption
4. Dumb and Dumber.
5. In high school it was Coyote Ugly, but that one just didn’t have the staying power, so at this point I’d actually probably say Cars. Owen Wilson. Larry the Cable Guy. Good stuff.
This seems like the best place to mention my somewhat odd quirk of only enjoying movies set between 1970 and present day. I don’t like films set in different time periods. Can’t think of any movie I’ve actually liked that doesn’t fall within that time span. I know what you’re thinking – “isn’t Shawshank set in 1947?” I have two retorts to this. First, it’s set in prison. Prison looks the same today as it did in 1947, so you can’t really tell it’s that old. Second, Andy escaped in 1966, which is practically 1970, so close enough. (Spoiler alert, if you haven’t seen the movie, it ends with Andy escaping.)
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