After relentlessly working for 17 years this CA from South Africa overcame a massive burnout. Here is how.

• Hi, I am Murray Barnetson, a Chartered Accountant from SAICA (The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants).
• I grew up in Pretoria, South Africa in a family of CAs. So, the path of Chartered Accountancy was pretty much planned out for me right from my birth!
• After relentlessly working for 17 years, I reached my limit…in 2017, I was diagnosed with burn out which forced me to step back and badly hampered my health.
• Since then I have prioritized health over business and have been striving to provide a sustainable ecosystem so that people can live worthwhile lives.

Back story

I was a happy-go-lucky youngster and just took life as it came. I didn’t give my career much thought. Nor did I plan what I wanted to do in the future although I have tried to set goals on a number of occasions.

My Dad, my sister, my uncle, my cousin, and some of our relatives are all CAs. (So, yes, there is a whole herd of us at family gatherings!)

When it was time to decide my career path, I too chose to become a CA. It wasn’t because I had to, but because at the time, it was by far the best tertiary route for general business. One could start their career a few rungs up the ladder, higher than their peers and the business knowledge received was very broad.