Much like a relationship you persist with when exiting it would be advisable, Josh Bartlett found himself at the University of Newcastle after leaving high school.
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A reluctant student, Bartlett thought it would be different at uni - that being treated as an adult, who had greater control over how he spent his time, would suit him more than high school.
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"The plan was to become a civil engineer, but uni just wasn't for me," he said. "So I moved back home and started an apprenticeship with my father, and I don't regret any minute of it."
The 22-year-old's father is Greg Bartlett, of Tamworth-based Greg Bartlett Constructions. And the apprenticeship Bartlett commenced was as a builder.
In reality, he also commenced an apprenticeship to one day succeed his father at the helm of the company.
"Like I said, I'm learning from what I see as the best in the business. There's a reason my dad's been so successful in his business of 25 years."
Bartlett wants to eventually offer his father a fair price for the company.
It would be "nice", he said, if Greg Bartlett Constructions did not "die out".
"And it means a lot to him that he's got someone underneath him who can learn the ropes and help him," Bartlett said, adding that "everything is falling into place" in his life.
That has not quite been the case for Tamworth FC this season, as they look to win a third-straight premiership after Greg Bartlett coached the side to the summit of the Premier Division the past two years.
Josh Bartlett played right wing in second-placed FC's 5-4 defeat of Moore Creek at Gipps Street on Saturday.
