'I flushed my Leaving Cert results down the toilet... I felt I’d let myself down'

Cork entrepreneur Karl Fitzpatrick has moved on to success after being disappointed by his Leaving Cert results, and he encourages students not to let their exams define them

Karl Fitzpatrick: 'There’s never been more options for students who didn’t get the points they need for what they want to do next".'

A college president who flushed his own Leaving Cert results down the toilet “out of pure embarrassment” has encouraged students not to let their exams define them.

Entrepreneur Karl Fitzpatrick told the Irish Examiner about preferring to destroy his Leaving Cert results after receiving them rather than take them home to hand over to his parents.

The Cork man is now the president and chief executive of Chevron College, a QQI-accredited e-learning provider of further and higher education programmes.

The Wexford-based business employs 135 staff members and provides education and training to 15,000 students annually. 

Mr Fitzpatrick is also among the EY Entrepreneur of the Year finalists this year, which he describes as “the honour of a lifetime”.

“When I was in my 30s, I remember somebody saying to me ‘you’d never get a job with EY or PwC or KPMG or any of those because you don’t have a third-level education’, so it was quite ironic that I went on to be recognised on the EY Entrepreneur programme.” 

Although he went on to establish a successful business career, Mr Fitzpatrick describes receiving his exam results in 1996 as the darkest day of his life.

“On an annual basis, I am reminded of that. On Leaving Cert results day each year, it brings me back to that day," he said.  

"Even though I’ve moved on so much, it's still sketched into my mind. It's as if [I thought] I’d have the Leaving Cert results imprinted into my forehead for the rest of my life, and that everyone I ever met for the rest of my life would see them and judge me."

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He attended Presentation Brothers College, and while he found school enjoyable, he never felt fully engaged.

“I’m the eldest of three boys. We were given every opportunity. Going to school, and getting to know new people and new friends, that was fine. It was just something about the academic side of it.

“It didn’t suit me, it didn’t engage me. I never thought about dropping out, don’t get me wrong, but I was looking forward to finishing.” 

He had thought he might get the results he needed to study business at CIT, but "it just didn’t transpire". 

"The day of the Leaving Cert results I went down, and I got what I deserved. It was no reflection on the school, it was no reflection on the education system.

"You can’t personalise it for everybody. I was so disappointed, and I had such a lack of confidence after it, I didn’t want to bring those Leaving Cert results home out of pure embarrassment.

“I remember after reading them, deciding that I didn’t want to see them any longer and I went into the bathroom and I flushed them down the toilet. It’s not something I wanted to be reminded of. It wasn’t something I wanted to hand over to my parents for them to read.

I felt like I’d let them down, and I’d let myself down. I felt like I didn’t need to be reminded of these Leaving Cert results.

Mr Fitzpatrick said his parents "were disappointed to say the very least”. 

“I didn’t want to see anybody afterwards for a few days. I didn’t want to answer questions, so I avoided neighbours and friends.

“I laid low, I certainly wasn’t celebrating. A few days into it, a family member had a chat with me and said ‘this seems to be getting you really down’.

“They said: ‘This is just one exam at a moment in time of your life. You can’t leave it limit you in terms of what you want to do'.

“They asked me what is it that you want to do? I thought, well I want to be in business, I want to gain skills to develop my own business down the road. They said 'well why don’t you get a job with a business? Start at the bottom and work your way up'.” 

He took their advice, and a few days later started to call to every business on the South Mall, eventually getting hired as a post boy with an insurance brokerage for IR£30 a week.

“I was delighted to take it. For me, at that time, it seemed like it was a second chance at a career, and I wasn’t going to blow that one.” 

In 2012, Mr Fitzpatrick invested his life savings to purchase Chevron College out of examinership. In 2025, the company is on track to bring in €25m in revenue, and make €3m in profit.

At 40 years old, during covid, he returned to education, completing a law degree in UCC.

“It was far more beneficial to do that degree at 40 than if I had succeeded in getting the points and wanting to do it at 18,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.

His advice for students disappointed with their results is not to be discouraged.

There’s never been more options for students who didn’t get the points they need for what they want to do next.

“Whether that’s in terms of apprenticeships, or alternatively there are 1,800 linked PLC courses available today. They can provide a bridge into a university after completing them.

“The Leaving Cert does not have to define you, if you don’t allow it to.”