Mind of Jacka: On Stage
Blogs Mike Jacka, CIA, CPA, CPCU, CLU Jan 14, 2025
My father, Jerry Jacka, was a deputy with the Maricopa County Sheriff’s department. There’s a good chance that is why I gravitated to the fraud investigation part of internal audit. But his first love was photography, and early on, he began selling his photographs. Over time, he was able to quit his employment in law enforcement and become a full-time professional photographer. He gained no small amount of fame.
Recently, our family donated his entire photo collection — slides, transparencies, etc. — to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. And they have been kind enough to put together a showcase of his photographs, titled, “Storyteller: The Photography of Jerry Jacka.” If any of you are in the Phoenix area the first part of the year, come check it out. They’ve planned a lot of activities around it.
Dad would have hated it and loved it.
But I’m not telling you this story to hawk the Heard Museum, my father’s photography, or the show. No, I am using it to tell a story about one of the people who gave dad his start, Joe Stacey.
Many years ago, Joe was editor of Arizona Highways magazine. If you don’t know about the magazine, take a look. It was (and still is) one of the premier regional magazines in the U.S. And people were begging to be included in their pages.
My dad was lucky enough and, more importantly, talented enough to often be included. When he was starting out, Joe Stacey had the perfect line. He told my dad something he never forgot.
“I’ll put you on stage. It’s up to you to perform.”
Dad took it to heart, performed, and succeeded. How successfully? He’s one of only two people to have an entire edition of Arizona Highways dedicated to him — the other being Barry Goldwater; he shot a National Geographic cover; he earned an income that allowed him to support his family and put his kids through school — although one of them became an internal auditor; and, oh yeah, did I mention there is a show dedicated to his photography at the Heard Museum?
Which brings us all the way back to internal audit. (I always try to find my way back here.)
I have always felt that internal audit is one of the few professions where you can become a leader as soon as you walk through the door. And part of the reason is that, if you are working in a department that supports its staff, you will find yourself speaking and presenting to people at all levels, from clerk to CEO.
What that means is that you have been given the opportunity to perform and use your skills to make an impression beyond just the audit that is being done. You have been given a stage to show your skills, abilities, and plain-old smarts. It may seem like just another meeting, or presentation, or discussion, or interview. But it is a stage. And to succeed, you must perform to the best of your abilities on that stage.
Employees of Disneyland parks are not called employees; they are cast members. When they go out into the parks, they literally talk about being on stage. They have been given that stage, and it is their job to perform.
And every internal auditor in the world — good audit department, bad audit department, not-even-called-an-audit-department audit department — is on stage, having been given the opportunity to perform.
That means every meeting, interview, discussion, hallway walk-by, debrief, introduction, etc., etc., is your opportunity to perform and succeed.