Years ago, accountant Barbara Rosenbaum came up with a quote that she has lived by: “Facing fear leads to courage, strength and powerful choices.”

A few years back, the senior tax partner at Gumbiner Savett Inc. in Santa Monica overcame a longtime fear of sharks by diving in shark-infested waters off the coast of Fiji. She watched a tiger shark come within a few yards.

Rosenbaum, 57, also overcame a fear of public speaking by agreeing to co-chair a conference, taking speech lessons and “practicing crazy breathing exercises.” Now she looks forward to public speaking events.

But the quote recently paid an unexpected dividend. A client told her about a call for entries for the 2013 Woman’s Advantage Shared Wisdom Calendar; Rosenbaum decided to submit the quote.

Much to Rosenbaum’s surprise, her quote was one of 365 chosen for the calendar out of more than 5,000 entries. The quote appears on Friday, Feb. 15.

Rosenbaum has received dozens of congratulatory emails. But one stood out. “I had someone call me a ‘calendar girl.’ Now that’s amusing,” she said.

Poll Position

Before this month, Josh Bachove, manager at Turkish men’s clothing store Sarar Sunset Plaza in West Hollywood, had never voted from a polling booth. He had always voted by mail.

On Election Day, he was excited to finally experience day-of voting, but found it wasn’t quite as he expected.

When Bachove, 28, arrived at his polling place, he was handed a ballot and directed to a voting booth. After inserting his ballot into the booklet provided at the booth, he opened to the first page.

“It had old presidential names on it, like Dwight Eisenhower and Franklin Roosevelt,” he said.

Bachove told a volunteer what he had found. But the woman he spoke with denied anything was wrong.

“I said, ‘Is this a joke? Am I on “Candid Camera”?’ ”

Rather than cast his vote for a dead president, Bachove waited for a different booth to open up. The next booklet he saw appeared to be accurate, so he marked his choices and deposited his ballot.

“I had sort of convinced myself that this was a prank, but this wasn’t the right time or place for a prank,” he said. “I thought about it all day.”

When Bachove left work that night, he returned to his polling place on the way home and spoke with a supervisor.

“He said it was a mistake, that it was a sample booklet they sometimes use to show people how to vote,” Bachove said.