Another example would be in the game of golf when I was playing competitive amateur golf. In this situation, I loved my old MacGregor persimmon woods and dragged my feet to even try metal woods. The old Tommy Armour woods that I used in college were very forgiving on mis-hits and were my safety blanket so the thought of caving into some fad using these Pittsburgh Persimmon woods from Taylor Made was out-of-the-question. It wasn't until Big Bertha came around that I realized that my loyalty to persimmon woods was costing me too many yards off the tee.

I was also slow to adopt Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser because of my anti-Microsoft mentality. Hanging onto Netscape was another example of my adoption rate, slow.

Talkin' about slow adopters, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are feeling the pain for missing the transition to hybrids and more environmentally friendly alternatives. It's so bad that Ford is now considering going private.

In many ways, YOUR reluctance to adopt QuickBooks is costing you as well. Here are the plain facts so you can evaluate the landscape:

• QuickBooks is used by nearly 3 million small businesses
• 86 percent of QuickBooks users work regularly with accountants
• QuickBooks accounts for nearly 90 percent of the market share for retail accounting software sales
• Four of five accountants recommend QuickBooks to their small business clients

Yes, I've heard all of the arguments against QuickBooks. At the same time, the sea parted years ago and I clearly see how this "slow adopter" mentality is costing many small business accounting firms. By refusing to adopt QuickBooks, you are clinging to a Macintosh, Netscape, Sony's Beta and Lotus. Yes, I understand that there may be better alternatives out there but it is costing you in the back pocket, big time. Keep in mind, Sony's Beta was better than DVDs, Lotus was better than Excel, and Macintosh was better than PCs but that didn't matter at the end of the day.