Mathew Heggem is a dancer turned CEO of SUM Innovation, a 15 person company that assesses, designs, implements, and manages accounting solutions. After working in the nonprofit world for many years, Matthew changed his career to seek out new experiences. Though one may not think that “choreographer” and “accounting consultant” share many characteristics, Matthew says building a business is creative work.

“I saw building a business as an opportunity to continue my exploration as a creative person. A new business is a blank canvas, and it’s all a matter of leveraging your creativity to create something worthwhile within the context of your resources,” Matthew says in an article on Simply Hired's blog.

Creativity enables innovative thinking, and an exposure to art can equip future employees with qualifications that translate across fields. “Discovering the overlap between the outputs of dance and accounting paved the way for me to effectively take on a CEO role.... Instead of seeing myself as only a skilled dance artist, I looked at what made me a choreographer and found that my talents applied to more than just the stage.”
 

Read 6 ways that this CEO’s dance training helps him as a leader in business.