I will never forget the worst advice. “Go get a real job.”
It came from my accountant. I had just earned my MBA and founded a team building company. I made that decision before graduation, but this was the moment it stopped being an idea and became real. No slow ramp-up. I was in.
Before that moment, I had come across a line in a book on entrepreneurship that never left me: “The only difference between the unsuccessful entrepreneur and the successful one is that the unsuccessful one thought they’d be successful. The successful one knew it.”
That resonated with me because it reflected how I felt, not out of arrogance but out of a commitment to not failing.
The first year was hard. 9-5 every day at Team Builders Plus. 6-10 every weeknight delivering pizza. Every Saturday and Sunday, I worked for my parents, who owned a children’s clothing store. Seven days a week, every week. My only time off was Saturday and Sunday evenings, and that was for chores.
At the end of that first year, we made a profit—but I’ll put that in air quotes. It’s hard to call it profit when one doesn’t take a salary. But the company had momentum, and I was feeling good. I sat down with my accountant expecting a conversation about growth, maybe some cautious optimism. Instead, he looked at me like I was crazy. “You have an MBA. Go get a real job.”
Yup. He said that. Get a real job.
What he was really saying, without realizing it, was to walk away from something I believed in. Something that energized me. Something that felt like it mattered.
I ignored him. But truth be told, it made me angry, which fueled my drive even more.
The next year, I came back with better numbers. More revenue. More profit. The following year, I did the same. And the one after that.
Years later, he said something else I will never forget. After I handed him the paperwork for the year’s taxes, he took a deep breath, looked me in the eyes, and said, “You’re my lesson. I will never again tell anyone to stop trying to grow a business. Imagine if you had listened to me.”
Ironically, I’ve caught myself giving the same advice he gave me. “Get a real job.”
But I mean something completely different. A paycheck or a title doesn’t define a real job. It’s not what society thinks has value or what looks good on LinkedIn.
A real job is something that feeds you. It’s work that lets your personality shine. It pulls you in so deeply that late nights don’t feel like a sacrifice. They feel like excitement, full of possibility.
So maybe my accountant wasn’t entirely wrong. I did get a real job, and it was the best career decision I’ve ever made.
About Merrick Rosenberg
Merrick Rosenberg is the creator of the Eagle, Parrot, Dove, and Owl personality framework and author of Personality Intelligence: Master the Art of Being You. As an award-winning speaker and founder of Take Flight Learning, Merrick has helped hundreds of thousands of people unlock the power of personality styles to transform their communication, leadership, and relationships. He’s on a mission to make self-awareness accessible, fun, and unforgettable.