What actions have made you a better finance professional?

What action did you take?   What was the biggest discovery?

MY ACTION:
For myself, it was following the advice of my early mentor, Curt Carlson (founder of Carlson Companies - owner of Radisson franchise, TGI Fridays, Carlson Wagonlit Travel) who told me:  To make your financial counsel to be of value, be able to answer questions about the business with 25% of the information, like the people operating the business - not with 100% after the fact.

After a few stumbles, I got myself out from behind the desk and went on sales calls, account management review, new products design sessions, and operations on a regular basis.

My two biggest discoveries:  What I thought was important for an area, was not necessarily so.  Second, by changing what I produced to use the language of the operations, not finance, I provided the field 'more information, less data'.