Podcast Ep 270: From flushing his Leaving Cert results down the toilet to building a €20m education empire, EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2025 finalist Karl Fitzpatrick from Chevron College proves it isn’t all down to exam results.
Across Ireland today thousands of mostly young people will have opened their Leaving Cert results. Many, including their parents, will be delighted. And no doubt many will be disappointed.
Whether you got what you wanted or not, the results should not be the be all and end all for what happens over the rest of your life and indeed, as entrepreneur and business owner Karl Fitzpatrick relates, there are now more ways to get on the education and career ladder you desire.
“My story should provide whatever hope somebody needs that the Leaving Cert certainly doesn’t define you. If I was coming out today with the Leaving Cert results I got back then, there are probably 20 times the opportunities now”
In the latest ThinkBusiness Podcast Fitzpatrick, the president of Chevron College, talks about how he turned his worst academic day into entrepreneurial gold, and explains what his journey means for students receiving disappointing results today.
Exam results should not define your life
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“It’s a moment I’ll never forget. Even today, Leaving Cert results day is still a dark day for me, bringing back that memory”
Twenty-nine years ago, an 18-year-old Karl Fitzpatrick walked into a school toilet and flushed his Leaving Certificate results down the drain. Today, he stands as a finalist in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards, running Chevron College with 15,000 students annually and revenues on track for €20m.
The story of how one of Ireland’s most successful education entrepreneurs went from academic disappointment to business triumph offers hope to anyone opening exam results with trepidation.
“Education was an absolute priority for my parents growing up,” Fitzpatrick recalls of his childhood as the eldest of three boys. “It was discussed at the dinner table every day. School just wasn’t for me – that’s not a reflection on the school or education system, but it just didn’t play to my strengths.”
That became painfully clear on results day in August 1996. “I remember that day feeling empty and very disappointed, not just for myself, but for my parents as well,” he says. “There was a level of embarrassment. I remember walking down to school that morning fearful, and when I opened the envelope, I felt very disappointed and disheartened.”
His results didn’t qualify him for third-level education. What happened next was unusual, even by teenage standards. “I went into the school toilet and flushed the Leaving Cert results down the toilet. It’s a moment I’ll never forget. Even today, Leaving Cert results day is still a dark day for me, bringing back that memory.”
For several days afterward, Fitzpatrick went into hiding. “I didn’t want to face my peers, especially when many would have got the points they wanted. There’s so much media attention on Leaving Cert results that everyone asks ‘How did you get on? Did you get what you wanted?’ I didn’t want to be faced with those questions.”
The turning point came through a conversation with a family member who asked why the results mattered so much to him. When Fitzpatrick pointed to the societal emphasis on academic achievement, they offered crucial advice: ‘What’s stopping you from fulfilling that career through another route? Don’t let this stand in your way. This is an obstacle you have to find another way around.’”
A second chance
Kevin Sherry, Executive Director of Enterprise Ireland; Karl Fitzpatrick, President of Chevron College; and Roger Wallace, Lead Partner of EY Entrepreneur of the Year programme at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, Japan
That advice led to a bold move. “They told me to walk down to South Mall in Cork City, which was known as the richest street in Europe, with banks and insurance offices,” Fitzpatrick explains. “After a few days of feeling sorry for myself, I plucked up the courage to walk down with 50 CVs under my arm and called into businesses asking to speak to managers, introducing myself and saying I was open for work.”
“I turned the car into a mobile university. Whilst I didn’t get the points to get into university, I was going to take control of my education and acquire skills relevant to the job I was going to do”
Within days, an insurance broker called offering him a position as a post boy for £30 per week. “It gave me purpose and a launch pad,” he reflects. “Maybe I didn’t take education seriously at secondary school, but this was a second chance. I was going to grab it with both arms and do the very best I could.”
Fitzpatrick’s rise through the insurance company was swift, moving from post boy to personal lines, then to commercial insurance. His real education, however, was happening in his car. A friend working in radio sales introduced him to business audio books by Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Earl Nightingale, and Tom Hopkins.
“I turned the car into a mobile university,” he says. “Whilst I didn’t get the points to get into university, I was going to take control of my education and acquire skills relevant to the job I was going to do.”
The path to his current success began in 2007 during a trip to Dubai for a friend’s wedding. Reading a business magazine in Dublin Airport, Fitzpatrick spotted an article about new EU legislation requiring Building Energy Rating certificates for all Irish buildings. “I thought there must be an opportunity in that,” he remembers.
After completing a BER assessor course, Fitzpatrick saw a bigger opportunity in training rather than assessment services. “I could see there would be thousands of BER assessors but very few training providers.” This insight led him to join Chevron Training as sales director.
Five years later, the 2012 recession pushed the company into examinership. The company accountant advised Fizpatrick against investing, telling him “in the strongest terms” not to waste his money on a business whose “best days are behind it.”
Fitzpatrick didn’t listen. “I invested my life savings to get that company out of examinership,” he says. “Never in my wildest dreams when I opened those Leaving Cert results in 1996 did I think I’d become the owner and president of a higher education institution with 15,000 students per year. It’s quite ironic.”
The irony wasn’t lost on him when people in his twenties and thirties told him none of the big four accounting firms would employ someone without third-level education. “One step better than working for EY or PwC is actually to be recognised by them in what I consider the premiership and Oscars of Irish business – the EY Entrepreneur of the Year program.”
Strategic thinking
Building Chevron College required strategic thinking. Fizpatrick converted existing programs to online delivery, partnered with UK universities when Irish institutions proved reluctant, and focused on regulated sectors like healthcare and childcare where demand was consistent.
“Whether you got the results you wanted today or not, there are many more chances and opportunities ahead”
His commitment to self-education never wavered. When a crucial government contract tender was nearly lost due to a missing document, Fitzpatrick researched EU procurement law, found a solution, and won the contract. The experience convinced him to pursue a law degree at age 40 through UCC part-time.
“Whether it’s an employment law issue or contract law issue, it’s incredibly beneficial to have the knowledge,” he says. “It serves me well every day in business.”
Today, Chevron College educates over 15,000 students annually across healthcare, childcare, and other sectors, with 150 staff and profits of €3 million on revenues approaching €20 million. The COVID-19 pandemic actually doubled the business size as online education demand surged.
Fitzpatrick’s message to students receiving disappointing Leaving Cert results is clear: “My story should provide whatever hope somebody needs that the Leaving Cert certainly doesn’t define you. If I was coming out today with the Leaving Cert results I got back then, there are probably 20 times the opportunities now.”
He points to current educational pathways unavailable in 1996: “There are 107 apprenticeships today, including in insurance and software development, and 1,800 linked PLC (post-Leaving Cert) courses. There’s no shortage of opportunities for people to realise their dreams through education, even if they have to go through a detoured route.”
The biggest challenge, he notes, is navigation. “Because the education landscape is so vast, it’s very hard for people to navigate.”
Fitzpatrick recently shared his story with fellow and former EY finalists in Japan. “The amount of people who came over saying they’d done their Leaving Cert three or four times, or went off and did apprenticeships, was incredible. People were also saying they were crying because of the pressure they’d put on their own children doing the leaving cert.”
For parents and students alike, his journey from that toilet cubicle in 1996 to EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalist offers a powerful reminder: one set of exam results on a single day need not define an entire life. Sometimes the most successful paths are the ones that weren’t originally planned.
“The Leaving Cert results have never stood in my way of any achievements,” Fitzpatrick concludes. “The University of life equipped me with as many skills as I might have gained at Trinity, UCD, or even Harvard. Whether you got the results you wanted today or not, there are many more chances and opportunities ahead.”
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