The Importance of Endorsements References and Getting Others to Cheer for You

As a legal recruiter, one of the things I spent a lot of time doing was writing long, in-depth letters on behalf of my candidates. In many cases these letters would be over 10 pages long. The letters would contain discussions of the candidate’s character, overflowing praise of the attorney’s accomplishments and would also tell a story. I did such long and in-depth letters because I learned, early on in my legal recruiting career, that the longer and more praiseworthy the letter was the more likely the person was to get a job. Most recruiters do not [Read more]

How Using the Power of Routine Can Make You a Top Performer

In the early 1990s, a very rigorous scientific study was done in Berlin on music.  The study’s objective was to understand why certain violinists were more talented than others were.  This study is related in a fascinating book by Geoff Colvin called Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World Class Performers from Everybody Else. In order to do the study, the researchers created three groups of violinists–best, above average and good.  Each of these three groups were spending the same amount of their time involved in music-related activities. One of the most interesting things going into the study was that the violinist all seemed to know what particular activity mattered most in order to make them better at the violin: Practicing alone.  In fact, all of the violinist seemed to know this but, of course, they all did not do it.  The researchers quickly discovered that the amount of time the various groups spent practicing alone varied dramatically. The study discovered that the advantages of consistent practice built-up over time.  All of the test subjects were asked to estimate how much they had practiced.  The results were significant

• Best Violinists-By the age of 18 these violinists has accumulated 7,410 hours of lifetime practice on average as a group.
• Above Average Violinists-By the age of 18 these violinists had accumulated 5,301 hours of lifetime practice on average.
• Good Violinists-By the age of 18 these violinists had accumulated on average of 3,420 hours of practice on average.

The study concluded that

The differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a lifetime period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain.

The reason this study is so significant is due to the fact that it flies in the face of the idea of innate talent.  While many people work hard, this study also shows that the people who work [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]

Love What You Do

If you wish to get and excel at a job, one of the most important things you can do for yourself and for your employer is to love what you are doing. When I say, “love what you are doing,” I truly mean it. You must be so passionate about what you are doing you can hardly believe you’re getting paid for it. I do not care if you are 20 years old or 65 years old, you need to find and do work you enjoy. People who enjoy their work are the ones [Read more]

The Importance of Sharing Ideas

When I was in law school, I went into the library one afternoon and took a seat at a desk across from a guy I knew quite well. We were not great friends but I had been over to his home a few times and he was a likeable guy in all respects. Both of us were in the same Property class and we had an exam coming up in about two weeks. In your first year of law school, Property is one of the more difficult classes and requires a lot of study and preparation because it is a different way of thinking. In law school, the way people typically study is through outlines. An outline is essentially a distillation of the reading in class and insights from the Professor. Because there is so much to learn, what typically happens is groups of students get together to create them over a 15 week semester. For example, 15 students will get together and one week one student may do the outline and the next week another student will do the outline. After about 15 minutes, I looked up and realized that the outline he was studying from was absolutely incredible. It was incredible because it was very well organized and was tracking both the Professor’s comments and everything that had happened in the class very closely. It appeared to be something that was made in a prior year and had distilled the same class the professor had taught over and over again in a really good way. I asked my friend if I could see the outline. When I asked him this he hesitated a little bit and I could tell it was not something he really wanted to show me. Before he showed it to me he looked around the library to see if anyone was watching us. When he realized we were alone, he handed me the outline but not before telling me that if anyone walked up to not let them see me looking at it. I thought this was unusual but agreed. As I looked through the outline more closely I realized this was something that would really make my study of Property go a lot better. The outline was exceptionally well done in all respects. I immediately realized I needed this outline. “Can I copy this outline?” I asked. “I promised the people I got it from I would not let anyone copy it,” he said. “Are you kidding?” “No, I’m sorry. I can’t.” This sounded absolutely ridiculous to me. For the next 10 minutes or so I sat there and eventually talked him into letting me copy the outline. In order to copy the outline he made me promise to drive to a city called Culpepper, that was around 30 minutes outside of  Charlottesville, Virgina where I was going to law school. He was absolutely paranoid that someone who had given him this outline would see me with it and then blame him for giving me the outline. “These people are vicious … ” he told me. A few hours later I had copied the outline and drove over to his home and dropped it off. I chatted with him for another 10 minutes or so about where he had gotten this outline and who else had the outline. Incredibly, he informed me that he had gotten the outline from the same group of people who were in my outline group for property. He did not name all of the people, but he did name around 10 of the 15 people who were in my outline group as all having it. They had been having a “study party” or something along those lines that he had showed up at, and they had all been using this outline. They allowed him to copy it but made him promise never to give it to anyone else. As far as he knew, only these 10 people had a copy of the outline. The reason these people did not want others to have the outline was because the outline was so good. They believed that this outline was something that gave them an advantage and would enable them to perform much better in the final exam in the Property class. Essentially, the idea was that if they had this and others did not then this “artificial advantage” would enable them to do better, get a better job and be more successful. The next day in Property class, I looked around when the class began and watched those 10 people very closely. The classroom was a podium and I always sat at the very back of the classroom, so I could see everyone in the class and also look down. About 10 minutes into the class, those 10 people all had this “secret outline” out and were taking notes on it and so forth. A couple of days later, before the class started, everyone was [Read more]