We recently connected with Brandon Paul Agcaoili and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Brandon Paul thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned in school and why that lesson is important to you?

There’s a private alcove tucked away in Harvard’s Barker Center—the kind of place where time slows down and ideas settle in. On cold, gray afternoons, I’d go there to read Kierkegaard, Baldwin, and Deleuze. One day, during a seminar on resilience, my professor offered a proposal that landed with force: “A leap of faith isn’t about certainty—it’s about movement.” I remember staring out the window and realizing: maybe you don’t need the full plan to move forward. Sometimes, the logic only arrives after the leap.

That moment quietly reshaped everything.

At the time, I was studying law and philosophy. Years later, I would step into an entirely different universe—managing artists, promoting shows, and flying back to Los Angeles on weekends for underground dance music events. I was working with international artists and superstar DJs, overseeing their bookings, finances, and even coordinating U.S. visa logistics—literally helping them cross borders to perform on American stages. It was exhilarating and chaotic. And it didn’t fit any conventional definition of a “career.” People kept telling me to pick a lane.

But the truth I learned—first in books, then in the clubs—is that life isn’t linear. Everything is connected. Especially in creative work, you don’t always need to see the entire map. Sometimes, all you need is to walk through the door that opens.

When the door into entertainment opened, I stepped through. And when another opened into tax and finance, I didn’t see it as a pivot—I saw it as a continuation. As of this interview, I just graduated from the University of Southern California’s Master of Business Taxation (MBT) program. Earning the MBT wasn’t a departure from my past; it was a refinement of it. The strategic instincts I honed in the creative world were now grounded in regulation, deal structure, financial planning, and legal complexity. Philosophy taught me how to think. Entertainment taught me how to navigate ambiguity. Tax taught me how to translate vision into execution.

Of course, every door comes with a price.

Before launching my tax career, I turned down offers in Korea and Singapore—markets where I had deep personal and professional roots—because I believed in building something here. I saw a gap: someone who could operate at the intersection of art and infrastructure, fluent in both creativity and compliance. Staying in Los Angeles wasn’t the easy choice—it was the intentional one.

Progress often disguises itself as misdirection. But misdirection is just redirection with better timing.

Especially now.

Today, as institutions like Harvard face rising political pressure, as international exchange becomes increasingly fraught, and as creativity and scholarship are met with new restrictions, I’m reminded of how fragile access can be. The systems that allow us to collaborate, innovate, and build across borders—they matter. Because when doors close, creativity suffocates.

As someone shaped by multiple disciplines and global communities, I believe the most important work happens at intersections—between fields, between people, between identities. That’s where new industries are born. That’s where culture shifts.

So if you’re an artist, a builder, or a dreamer: trust the missteps. Trust the strange turns. Sometimes the wrong door leads to the right room.

Brandon Paul, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Brandon Paul S. Agcaoili is an Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ TRS (Tax Reporting & Strategy) in Asset Wealth Management (AWM) Practice in Los Angeles. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard University and a Master of Business Taxation from the University of Southern California. Formerly an electronic music artist manager and event promoter, he now advises asset managers, founders, and creatives on business development, cross-border transactions, M&A, and strategic tax planning. Known for connecting dots across disciplines, Brandon brings precision, vision, and cultural fluency to every engagement.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera; Principles by Ray Dalio; The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt; The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb; The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin; Love & Misadventure by Lang Leav.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new clients has always been reputation—earned quietly, sustained consistently, and carried forward by word of mouth. In entertainment (and as in corporate governance and advisory work) trust is currency. Clients come when your name shows up in rooms you’re not in—when your reputation precedes you not just as technically sound, but as principled, collaborative, and solution-oriented.

That kind of reputation isn’t built by self-promotion; it’s built by seeing the good in others and saying good things about others; by consistently recognizing value in the people around you. I’ve found that the most effective leaders and clients are also the ones who pay attention to how you treat others. Governance, after all, isn’t just about structure—it’s about stewardship. And stewardship begins with how you show up for people when there’s nothing transactional on the line.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brandonagcaoili/
• Linkedin: https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/bpsa

Image Credits

Ana Wigmore (black and white photo)