"Never give up!" is the message from Natalia Clack, winner of the Excellence Award at the recent Australian Accounting Awards, who overcame the challenge of learning a specialty and setting up her own business after moving here from Russia 20 years ago. "If you decide to come to another country and things are not going smooth, just push and be resilient, and make sure that you make your decision today and you follow through with your decision," she says on the latest Accountants Daily podcast.

The experience of Ms Clack, who also won the award for Superannuation Specialist Accountant, resounds in a profession where more than 50 per cent of practitioners were born overseas.

"Every day you try to improve your business, you try to grow your business, you face the challenges, and you think that all this effort doesn't get recognised," she said.

"But at the end of the day, it gets accumulated. So whatever you're doing, bit by bit, drop by drop, you get this accumulation of your strength, of your success, of your achievements, of your mentality.

"And at the end of the day, you will get your award one way or another."