JDs or most other professional investments we make rarely have linear pay offs. That's not how the game went even years ago in a more controlled economy. About 500 graduated from Harvard Law School annually. Yet not that many made it to the top or even developed brand-names. Today, in a volatile economy, the return on investment [ROI] is even more uncertain.
What has been always true in careers is that the ability to spot, pounce on, and exploit opportunity mattered more than anything else. Frequently that meant tossing The Plan. It's now a cliche that those with the big accomplishments and ongoing options don't take The Plan seriously at all. Mark Zuckerberg, an outsider who was lucky to be admitted to Harvard, left. Jones Day's partner Mark Herrmann was viewed as a lifer but went on to Aon. Creators of "The Good Wife" and "Mad Men" departed from just about every formula in television.
My The Plan in doing this law blog was to attract marketing communications from law firms. Turns out, at least for me, the money isn't there. Also, father forgive me, but I had been experiencing those kinds of clients as lacking in emotional intelligence [here's my ebook on boosting EI Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg.]
The opportunity turned out to be in the career side of the legal profession. Slowly but surely, it broadened into blogging and lecturing about general career issues in myriad disciplines as well as coaching those hitting walls in getting jobs. Most recently, I have been a contract blogger for AOL Jobs. My lecture on transitions at the New York State Bar Association has been published in VITAL SPEECHES OF THE DAY Download NYSBAtalkinVITALSPEECHESOFDAY. And coaching assignments are coming from around the world.
Had I stuck with The Plan, I would have made peanuts, continued to be what I perceived as treated without proper respect for my expertise, and not been open to what could happen. Incidentally, what could happen now that I allowed X,Y, Z to occur, could be a flourishing of my niche in marcom for law firms. Only this time I would be in the catbird seat to determine the terms and conditions for law firms and me to work together.
To paraphrase Steve Jobs's iconic commencement speech at Stanford, stay open, stay hungry, and don't be so unhinged by a past failure not to be willing to revist the niche as new kind of opportunity.
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