Lessons from becoming an owner at a firm that wouldn't hire me as an employee

I shared something on Linkedin that seemed to resonate with people, so I wanted to share it here with you too...

Last month during partner announcements I shared a little bit about how I didn’t get an offer when applying for a full time audit associate position... 20 years ago.

What I didn’t mention in that post was that one of the firms that “rejected” me was the same firm where I made partner this year.

(Now this is the part of the post that's the most important -- the reason why I was thinking about this in the first place.)

I share that now because as I was meeting with some of our interns Friday morning I was reminded that the thing so many people wonder about is how to handle the hard situations that come up.

Literally nobody is asking how to handle being viewed as a strong performer or key team member. People seem to have a way of figuring out what to do in favorable circumstances.

They do often want to know how to get to the place where they are viewed in this way though, especially when things get tough along the way…

So here's the first take away from my experience that I shared today. There’s more than one path to just about anywhere. Or as my friend Calvin Harris says, "the path ain't linear."

That means don’t let a single disappointment influence your self worth or make you think you can’t achieve a goal.

You should try to keep doing things everyday that will help build up your skills, and opportunities you didn’t know were possible will present themselves. That’s the power of #bigmo.

The funny thing about these fails along the way is they make me a better coach and consultant because I’ve lived on the inside of the same type of organizations that I help today. And I’ve been in the same seat of people who are on a similar career journey to the one I’ve taken so far.

Go figure. Those early fails are now some of my biggest assets.

Here's a bonus piece that I didn't include on Linkedin...

When I first moved to Atlanta, the person who was assigned as my career coach told me I should look into transferring to audit because he didn't think my personality would last in consulting. 5 years later, he's no longer with the firm...

Takeaway number 2, don't get distracted by what other people think you can or can't do, especially when they haven't been where you're trying to go.

Use that energy to fuel you when you don't feel like putting in the extra work, or taking that class to pick up the skill you know you need to take you to the next level. And just imagine the look on their face you get to see when you prove them wrong.

Yea, I know that last one is a little petty but I'd be lying if I said this motivation wasn't some of the most effective for me.

Do what you will with that information. And if you need help with what to do next, hit me up.