My First Job: John Campbell, executive vice president

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April 9, 2006

My First Job: John Campbell, executive vice president

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John Campbell

Current position: Executive vice president — consulting, Baldwin Resource Group in Bellevue, a diversified professional-services firm that specializes in business consulting, risk management, commercial insurance and employee-benefits and wealth management.

First job: Door-to-door Fuller Brush salesman. I was on my own to make calls, introducing products and making sales, ordering the merchandise, breaking shipments into individual orders, delivering to the customer and collecting payment.

How I got the job: I needed a job that would last three months between graduating from the University of Virginia and reporting to the U.S. Navy Officer Candidate School. I found a Fuller Brush advertisement in the newspaper, attended a recruiting session and was hooked.

What I learned: Many useful things that would help me later in life, including being able to talk to strangers, being able to present quickly and to be able to accept "No" as an answer. As I became more proficient at selling, I learned that observing and listening to the customer was the best tactic of all, because by then I knew the line and could quickly match their needs with our solutions — something I still do today.

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