How 130 Rejection Letters Made Getting My First Job That Much Sweeter

In this series, professionals reflect on their inevitable career mistakes. Follow the stories here and write your own (please include #BestMistake in your post).

My best mistake was studying accountancy at University. Like most young people I didn’t really know what I wanted to be so I searched the job market to see where the vacancies were. At the time there was a major shortage of accountants so I diligently enrolled to study a Commerce degree, which incorporated economics and accounting at Australia National University. I thought my life was mapped out, and I was on track!

To pay my way through University, I had a landscaping business that ironically taught me more about business than my commerce degree. Plus I found accounting so boring I never actually attended the lectures. I still vividly remember speaking to a guy in the student bar toward the end of the course and asking him what he did — turns out he was my accountancy lecturer!

I learned a huge amount at University but most of it was through my apprenticeship in commerce in real time rather than actually going to lectures. As a result I graduated with a far from stellar "pass" grade. The problem was my carefully mapped out plan was beginning to take on water. When I’d started the course, a pass in accountancy would probably have still secured me a good job. Unfortunately by the time I finished there was no longer a shortage of accountants because careers advisors had been suggesting it as a career path for years. The companies looking for accounting graduates now had the luxury of being able to pick and choose from the very best "distinction" students. In the four months following my graduation, I received 130 rejection letters and at the time I thought I’d made a terrible mistake and wasted four years of my life.

Looking back, however, it was probably the best mistake I ever made. The only job I could get was in sales and although I thought sales was beneath me, I took the job. I was selling mortgages for a finance company. What was especially beneficial about this company was that they had recently restructured from a branch-based network of a 180 branches around Australia to 16 mega-branches that were like call centres almost exclusively focused on sales. The company also had an amazing culture based on competition and meritocracy so the best salespeople were promoted to the best positions.

My time in sales taught me two very powerful lessons…

1. I really loved sales (which is lucky because with hindsight I’m sure I would have hated accountancy) and
2. Sales skills set you up for life. What I came to realise is that sales is like a primary colour in art — you can’t create anything without using it. And if you are fortunate enough to learn it early, as I was, then it can change your life trajectory.

I thrived in the environment and the culture meant that if you sold well, you were promoted. After nine months, I found myself as a branch manager and after another 18 months I was the state manager. I quickly became one of the top sellers in the company often toughing it out for the top spot with another salesman who had started the same week I had — Trevor Folsom. Trevor would later become my business partner in Blueprint and the first idea we took to market was a concept we learned together at an in-house company training course in Brisbane. It was a marketing idea that focused on increasing sales through existing customers by up-selling and cross selling — an idea that was virtually unheard of at the time.

I’m a great believer in the adage "action precedes clarity." I didn’t know what I wanted to do but instead of being frozen in indecision, I made a choice and went with it. That decision may not have worked out as I planned but I ended up with an outcome even better. I may have chosen the "wrong" course but that course put me on the right path. I could have refused the sales job. To be honest, I was upset about it. Like so many graduates before and after me I thought I was too good for sales. I was wrong.

In the end I decided that doing anything was better than doing nothing and that decision to get into action instead of waiting for clarity changed everything. I honed a life skill that I’ve never stopped using in business and beyond (I have young children and I’m definitely using it with them!) I made really good money and best of all, I met my friend and business partner Trevor and together we went on to create a hugely successful business which allowed us both to retire in our 30s.