Never Say Sell

CHAPTER 2Learning to Farm

Charlie Mercer was a Blue Devil from before he could remember:

I grew up in Raleigh, and it was a lifelong dream to go to Duke.

A natural athlete in high school, tall and broad-shouldered, Charlie played first baseman on the baseball team and forward on the basketball squad while getting good grades, being in band, and participating in student government – the picture of the well-rounded student.

“It's unbelievable what young people accomplish these days,” Charlie says from his office in the Research Triangle. “They invent something or distinguish themselves in some big way before they even get to college. That wasn't me. I was good at a lot of things but not exceptional at any one thing.”

At Duke, he served as vice president of his fraternity and played in a band called “The Facebook All Stars” while majoring in public policy.

“There's a common theme here,” he says. “Public policy covered everything from economics and leadership to classes on nonprofits and political science. It was the ability to study all sorts of things that drew me into that major.”

In other words, Charlie was ripe to be picked up by a consulting firm after graduation, where the ability to walk into any setting, see patterns, and make a connection with clients is highly prized, and where the ability to lead a team is an important rung on the career ladder.

His first job was with The Advisory Board, after which he joined Stockamp & Associates, a consulting firm that concentrated ...