The Accidental Career That Was Never Really Accidental

I didn’t choose sales. Sales chose me.

In my mid-20s, I was living in Brisbane chasing a semi-professional rugby league career, doing what I loved and figuring out the rest as I went. I needed income, stumbled across a sales opportunity, and took it to pay the bills.

That’s the accidental part. Everything after that was inevitable.

Because here’s what I knew about myself — in a standard work environment, I lacked accountability. I knew it. I wasn’t proud of it, but I knew it. Put me in a structure where someone else sets the ceiling, and I’d probably find it pretty quickly.

But put me in an environment where I determine the outcome? That’s a different story.

100% commission will do that to you. There’s nowhere to hide. No salary to fall back on. No busy work to dress up as productivity. You either perform, or you don’t. Just like sport — there’s always a scoreboard.

What I noticed almost immediately was that the people at the top weren’t the most naturally talented. They were the ones who showed up early. Who prepared beyond what made sense. Who did the unglamorous work consistently, week in and week out.

I’d seen this before. I just hadn’t fully lived it.

In rugby league, I played for the love of it. The team, the culture, the shared goal.

But if I’m honest, I left a few stones unturned. I loved the game — I’m not sure I loved the grind behind it enough.

Sales gave me a second chance to find out what happened when I turned every stone.

So I did. And something funny happened — I started getting luckier.

There were still hard stretches. Slumps where the harder I tried, the further I felt from my best. Anyone who’s played sport knows that feeling. You’re pressing. Overthinking. The game speeds up right when you need it to slow down.

Sport taught me what to do in those moments. Strip it back. Double down on fundamentals. Focus on the role, not the result. Trust the process you know works, even when the scoreboard disagrees with you.

That’s the thing nobody tells you about a career in sales — it’s not really about sales at all.

It’s about who you become when the pressure is on, and quitting would make complete sense.

Sport taught me that. Sales just gave me a bigger arena to prove it.