I worked for Combined for close to 5 years in Australia in the early to mid 1990. I was single at the time and I found Combined (or Combined found me) at a time in my life when things were pretty low. My career started slowly, I went a year of spending what I was earning just going to work. It seemed to just click and things started going my way. I went from Sales rep to Territory Rep then to District Rep in the next 12 months. I started to make reasonable money, I thought it was great money. I was quite a party animal and found the lifestyle of booze and late nights exceptional fun. I really lead the high life of driving flash cars and staying in ritzy hotels. I had all the awards and trappings of a Combined high achiever. Our team was achieving fantastic results in the District and we had a pretty good team, I was very fortunate to have understood the philosophy of field training and spent most of my time doing that. This was due to a very motivated Regional Manager. I believe he is still with the company and has climbed the ladder of success. This same manager who made me, also sent me to the wall. This started on a Masters trip. Masters awards were a all expense paid trip offshore to a special awards ceremony. Myself and another DR spent most of our time drunk. One night my room mate found me in the toilet with my pants around my ankles and put me to bed. That same night I was having drinks in my room with my Regional manager. I was not THAT drunk and was certainly not that drunk that I passed out on the toilet. Anyway, I quizzed the Regional the next day about what time we finished up and he just laughed and said we had a great time. Now is the time I say I am a straight bloke and so I thought, was the Regional. I could not prove anything as I was known as bit of a playboy and a drunk. (Its still a bit hazy, but little bits have come back to me and I reckon he was the reason my pants were down). I lost a bit of direction after that and started doing silly things like writing bogus policies to reach targets. Things were starting to spiral out of control. I did not want to be near this pervert, so I put in for a transfer. That was my undoing. I moved to an area under a different Regional (a previous leader of mine, great guy). At the start it was good, but because the company and my ex-Regional did not want me to transfer areas, they stopped all my automatic renewal income (Cemtex) I had built up over 4 and a half years. I was like a sinking ship, I did not have the motivation or the income to start from scratch again. I tried and tried but ended up going bankrupt. I was bitter and twisted for a while, but there is a silver lining. I met my beautiful wife via Combined (I met her towards the end of all this), we have been married for 13 years and have 3 wonderful kids. So it really is a bittersweet relationship with Combined for me. I have got a fair bit to be thankful for. I have a very good work ethic and am a very positive person, i have utilized the work practices from Combined and am now quite successful again. So for all of you, who have battled through this post, I believe in Combined and think it is a great career for the young and single and the work ethics and mindset will set you up for your future, however, crappy management and crappy people stuff it up. As for despicable turd Regional Managers, I really do not know whether I could restrain myself from punching him in the face if we ever came face to face. Hopefully I never have to.
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