Rules, Your Nature, and Your Career

I went into the basement today, and without realizing it, I pulled out an old list of goals and rules I created for myself around 15 years ago. I remember writing them down as I was completing a yearlong clerkship with a federal judge and preparing to move to California, where I would take the Bar Exam. My entire experience in law school and working for the judge had exposed me to a profession with which I was not really that comfortable. The formality of law practice, the focus on detail, working in an office and behind a [Read more]

Never Stop Growing

Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest. On May 29, 1953, he scaled the highest mountain known to man-29,000 feet straight up. He was knighted for his efforts. He even made American Express card commercials because of it! However, until you read his book, High Adventure, you don’t understand that Hillary had to grow into this success. You see, in 1952 he attempted to climb Mount Everest, but failed. A few weeks later a group in England asked him to address its members. Hillary walked on stage to a thunderous applause. He then moved away from the microphone and walked to the edge of the platform. He made a fist and pointed at a picture of the mountain. He said in a loud voice, “Mount Everest, you beat me the first time, but I’ll beat you the next time because you’ve grown all you are going to grow… but I’m still growing!” I first read this quote several years ago and it stuck with me. I am not sure who recorded it, or why, but the importance of this quote to my life, the lives of my employees, and to you cannot be overemphasized. I grew up in a small city outside Detroit to which I do not return often. A few years ago I had to go back, and in my few days in the town I visited gas stations, hardware stores, and other such places. Inside many of these businesses I saw people I grew up with working at cash registers and doing other, similar tasks. Many of these people are the nicest people you will ever meet, and they are also extremely happy. What struck me about the people working these jobs was that many of them had been far more intelligent, far better socially, and far more talented in many respects than I ever was. These were people I knew could have become doctors, lawyers, or anything else they wanted to be-and they still could. However, what happened to many of these people is that they stopped growing and stopped trying to be the best they could be in all respects. Don’t you ever stop growing. One of the most shocking things I saw when I visited home was a girl I had a serious crush on growing up. She used to be an athlete and someone who was very concerned about her appearance. She was someone who I remember as being so attractive and in demand that, from the time she was 14 years old, she was always dating men a couple of years older. What struck me when I returned home and saw her was that she had probably doubled her weight and looked like a completely different person. There is nothing wrong with being overweight; nevertheless, she was someone who at some point simply gave up on trying to look the best she could. There is a positive side to this: she has the potential to be who she was before. There is nothing more exciting than having an opportunity to improve yourself. You should never stop trying to be the best you can be. Each day is a new opportunity for learning. Your career and your life need to follow the path of constant growth. You want to get better and better at each thing you do. One of the men I respect the most in the world is Al Gore. After he won/lost the election to George Bush, I (and many others) believed that he would simply fade into obscurity like most politicians do after leaving office. Al Gore was different, though. Several years later, it almost brought tears to my eyes when I saw him campaigning for his movie, An Inconvenient Truth. To me this was a huge comment on his character because it showed that he kept growing even after losing. I imagine that if George Bush had lost the election he would have simply returned to Texas. Gore was different. He kept growing and did everything within his power to continue growing. And he is still growing. This is the sort of person we need to be in our careers. We need to always be looking for room to grow and get better at what we do. The more we grow, the more exciting our lives and careers continue to be. There is nothing more exciting than always growing in your career. Some of the hardest things for attorneys to do are get a job in a major law firm when they graduate from law school and make partner at a major law firm. It is interesting to watch the race between attorneys trying to make partner. What generally happens is that there are some attorneys who grow and others [Read more]

To Innovate You Need to Make Your Own Rules

One of the benefits of being an outsider is not being weighed down by the same social mores, rules, customs, and other restraints as the dominant group. Throughout history it has often been outsiders who have made the greatest inventions, innovations, and breakthroughs and achieved the most in their lives. In business, people like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates were both outsiders. In Germany, Albert Einstein was an outsider. Barack Obama was an outsider. Each of these people operated by their own set of rules. When you find someone who has been wildly successful at something, the [Read more]