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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 desk, the degree of formality and so forth were a lot for me to stomach. There was nothing wrong with this and there were certainly many nice people I had met while working for this judge and also practicing law. The thing is, I started to feel like it was not me. Since the age of 18 I had worked as an asphalt contractor. I experienced a ton of freedom, worked outdoors most of the time, and liked the job a great deal. I could swear when I wanted to, I could tell people who I did not like to screw off, and I loved the trucks, crazy machines, smells of tar, bartering, the variety of people I worked with, and more. The asphalt business was just way more fun–a total blast. The money was also pretty good, and I saw a future in it. Perhaps more importantly, I understood the rules.
The rules of being a successful asphalt contractor were pretty simple:
I understood the rules of the game and to me they were pretty easy. I could always see where the next milestone was and I knew what I needed to do in order to get there. I thought about the rules of the business every single day. You need to know the rules. The rules are the most important aspect of any business and in any profession.
Several years ago I got into the student loan business. I started doing all of these student loans and did not really have any idea about the rules. I knew that if I were going to succeed I needed to understand how everything worked. This meant learning something like how much to pay the people who worked for me doing loans. I also had to learn a certain order of progression for that career path. Every type of business or job has its own rules, and in order to do well you need to understand them.
There was a real easy to follow progression in the asphalt business, and none of it involved kissing up, political games, or anything like that. For the most part, if you did good work and followed the rules you could do quite well. You needed to pay your taxes, pay your employees on time, maintain your equipment, make the payments on your equipment, and some other things; however, the path to success was pretty clear and the rules were not that hard to follow. There was no bullshit. If you could do the work according to specification, at the lowest cost, and within the specified timeframe, you would get the job and get paid. It was for this simplicity that I most appreciated the profession.
The thing about becoming an attorney for me was that it was just so backward seeming. There were dress codes. There was formality. You were judged on things like an absence of typos in your work, your seriousness, and all sorts of other intangibles. Your job and security came down to whether or not people liked you. The economy was often a factor. You then had to make partner in a law firm and would learn later that the prospect of becoming a partner is not secure. The entire profession did not make a lot of sense to me because I did not understand the rules.
So I started making list of rules the year I worked for the judge. I picked them up pretty quickly because there were certain behaviors that were obviously considered positive and others that were considered negative. Depending on how one looks at these goals, they can be perceived as either incredibly disturbing or inspiring. Here is the list as I originally wrote it:
Based on applying these rules and goals, I was able to get jobs with two of the top law firms in the world. I worked at these prestigious firms for years, and I continued to get better and better at practicing law. A lot of it had to do with setting goals and carefully and aggressively identifying all of my weaknesses. Writing it all down helped. I knew exactly what it would take for me to get better at my job, and to continually rise above previous expectations. I often referred to my goals, which helped me improve over time. Without these goals and continually expanding on them, success would not have been possible.
Many of the rules and goals I set for myself represented everything that I was not. I needed to create goals for myself to become a completely different person than I, in fact, am. Truthfully, I was in a profession I had no business being in, because this very concept goes against my entire nature. Nonetheless, I set a variety of goals for myself, all based on me being a different person than I really am. I had to refer to these goals often like a roadmap to reorient me. I was like someone in a foreign country, using a map to get around. I knew the rules but did not like them. It simply felt all wrong.
And this brings me to you.
First, you need to ensure that whatever you are doing you know the rules. If you do not know the rules for what you are doing, you are never going to succeed. Every job–and in fact every person, has a series of rules that need to be followed if you want to see progress. If you follow the rules, you will do well and if you violate them, you will not.
I remember my girlfriend in college had told me she no longer wanted to speak with me after we had broken off our relationship. We had ended the relationship just before her mother came to town. She was from a conservative Jewish family and she told me that due to my Christian religion everything was wrong with our relationship. Somehow I had an instinctive realization that I should go over to her dorm when her mother was there, and tell her that I loved her and would not allow the religious issues to keep us apart. I just knew I needed to do this in front of her mother. I did this and it worked, and we got back together soon afterwards (right after her mother left town). See, she had a rule which I innately understood, which was that she could continue to date me, overlooking our religious differences–as long as I could stick up to her parents about the issue.
The thing about rules is there are certain professions and people whose rules we understand instinctively. There are also rules we do not understand instinctively or, sometimes, at all. These are the people we find ourselves having disagreements with out of nowhere, and these are the jobs that make us feel like we are so often completely out of place.
My parents are both artist/writer types, and I grew up with them constantly discussing literature and art. I always understood things that involved journalism, writing, art criticism, and so forth instinctively. When I was in college, I used to write papers for various classes without ever reading the book; I would turn them in and get good grades. I understood this stuff completely instinctively. I just knew those rules and how to do those things in a certain way.
You may understand accounting instinctively, architecture instinctively, carpentry instinctively, psychology instinctively, music instinctively, and more. I know a guy who sat down at a piano at the age of five for the first time in his life and could play anything and any tune. He just understood music and it came from a deep visceral level inside his brain. I do not understand it, nor do I have to, but here is an example of someone who understood the rules.
I became a legal recruiter precisely because, like the asphalt business, the second I encountered it, I understood the rules. Everything about legal recruiting made perfect sense to me. It came naturally. I understood the rules. Careers wherein you instinctively understand the rules will bring you a much higher chance of success.
The best thing you can do is put yourself in a situation where the rules are instinctive to you. Also, it can be extremely beneficial to make yourself a list of rules and goals like I once did, in order to learn the essence of your chosen profession.
Once you understand and feel the rules everything comes together easier because you seem to be following your own nature–rather than going against it. And if you follow your nature you will find success.
THE LESSON
Rules are the most important aspect of any business or profession. You must understand the unique rules in any situation in which you are a part if you are ever going to succeed. People instinctively understand the rules for certain professions, but there are others whose rules are opaque. You will achieve your greatest success by placing yourself in a situation where the rules are intuitive to you; doing so will make everything easier, because at that point you will merely be following your own nature.
About Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes is the Founder of BCG Attorney Search and a successful legal recruiter himself. Harrison is extremely committed to and passionate about the profession of legal placement. His firm BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys. BCG Attorney Search works with attorneys to dramatically improve their careers by leaving no stone unturned in a search and bringing out the very best in them. Harrison has placed the leaders of the nation’s top law firms, and countless associates who have gone on to lead the nation’s top law firms. There are very few firms Harrison has not made placements with. Harrison’s writings about attorney careers and placements attract millions of reads each year. He coaches and consults with law firms about how to dramatically improve their recruiting and retention efforts. His company LawCrossing has been ranked on the Inc. 500 twice. For more information, please visit Harrison Barnes’ bio.
About BCG Attorney Search
BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive that gets results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities that its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.
Filed Under : Featured, How to Succeed
Tagged: career goals, essence of profession, follow your nature, rules of career
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In this article Harrison discusses the role of self-motivation and self management. Self-motivated and self managed people always perform well. In contrast people who are forced to follow massive amounts of procedures and rules can never perform. It is important that our rituals and sense of responsibility is internal, and something we learn to do naturally–not something we only do when it is imposed on us by people on the outside. The best people in every job are self- managed and responsible individuals. Also, the more self-managed people there are working for an organization, the stronger the organization generally is. Instead of creating problems in the workplace, you should seek out responsibilities, and ritualize your work routine. These responsibilities will drive you forward in your daily work, in your career, and in your life.
Your must always strive to create value for your organization, and your organization must in turn strive to add value to the world. Since value comes from teams of individuals rather than any single person, the best companies strive to maximize their staffs’ efficiency. You must also ensure that your company weeds out the employees who do not create value in favor of those who do, and that you belong to the latter group.
When you try to mask or suppress aspects of your personality, those traits will inevitably come to the fore anyway. You need to develop a comprehensive understanding of yourself, including your darker or deeply buried traits; once you know how your dark side limits and controls you, the better you will do in your life and career. Self-discovery will ultimately lead to inner peace, which in turn will enable you to more fully develop your goals.
The number one thing that makes people fail and not reach their potential is competition. If get into an area where there is not much competition and you genuinely have something to offer, you will succeed. Everyone is successful to the extent they are doing something others around them are not that provides value.
Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most important things you can do in your job search. Understand that your career is itself a commodity and you need to sell yourself, and your salesmanship will determine your career success. Creating a sense of urgency will always help you close your sale.
Companies necessarily seek to employ positive, forward-minded people. A firm’s success depends on their employees, and they seek people who will enhance them rather than merely contribute to the bottom line. People with positive natures, who contribute to a healthy social environment, prove essential to the growth and success of their employers.
You can never become too comfortable if you wish to be successful. Your success will largely depend on your ability to become dissatisfied with your current position. Successful people are never satisfied with the status quo, and constantly push beyond their comfort zone. When do you this and succeed, you set a new standard for normality in your life. Be continually dissatisfied, and always pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone.
Resourcefulness can make you better at everything you do, and separates the truly extraordinary people from the general herd. Do everything within your power to be resourceful in your job search, life, and career to give yourself the best possible chance of achieving your goals, and learn how to employ the resources currently at your disposal for maximum impact.
Adopting a positive attitude will always bring you closer to success, as nobody wants to be associated with a losing side. Everyone wants to associate with and hire winners, and avoids losers. Nothing is more important than maintaining a positive attitude, as many employers hire people based primarily on attitude; with the right attitude, everything else will fall into place. You must look like you are on the winning team, even if times are tough; nobody wants to hire a loser.
You can change your life forever by harnessing the power of persistence. Think about the people in your life, and whether they empower you or hinder you in achieving your goals. You must win at all costs, and persist until you succeed.
You will greatly benefit your career by helping and promoting your company’s expansion. A common belief is that expansion is fundamentally positive, and a lack of expansion is fundamentally negative. You must be on the side of expansion rather than contraction in every area of your life. All employers seek people who will help them expand, and the more your ability to contribute to this expansion will provide you increased job security and a greater likelihood of being hired.
Focus on what you are doing, not what others around you are doing. There are people to take action towards their goals, and then there people who sit on the sidelines and comment on the first group of people. People who are mostly interested in gossip and watching others usually lack the confidence and determination to take action themselves. The most successful people go account and accomplish things rather than sit back and watch others make things happen.
Anyone can be up when things are going well, but the real challenge comes when things are not. Do not look at problems, which are inevitable for any person or business, in a negative light; think of them instead as challenges, lessons, or opportunities. There is a silver lining to be found in every problem, and finding that silver lining will enable you to grow.
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In this article Harrison explains how you can do better in your career by selling. The most successful people are absolute masters at sales. Selling is among the most important career skills you can have. When you know how to sell something you can do exceptionally well wherever you go. Knowing how to sell something is a key to survival, advancement, fame, and fortune. Everything we do is about making a sale. Selling yourself is about showing others the value you can bring them. So package yourself to the best of your ability, always be at your best and sell yourself. Develop your sales skills and do not be afraid to sell anything. Whatever your goal in life, becoming an effective salesman will help you achieve it.
Your résumé is an extremely important document. There are entire books written about how to craft them. I have written at least one myself. There are scores of résumé consultants, companies, and others that will work on your résumé for a fee. Hiring one of these services can be useful and can improve your résumé. Nevertheless, most résumés can improve dramatically by following the below advice.
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In this article Harrison talks about releasing the lack that you feel, in order to reach your full potential. If a sense of lack dominates your thinking, it will affect your interaction with the world and how the world sees you. There are many areas of your life where you are coming from a position of lack. Your ability to release this lack and go forward with your life can create a tremendous sense of peace and more natural accomplishments in your world. The amount of lack that people see out there is profound and it has a massive impact on their lives. According to Harrison, the most successful people in the world see the world as a place of opportunity and not lack.
Determine whether you are a global or specific person. Most people are either too general or too specific in the way they treat information, and overly detail-oriented people risk losing sight of the bigger picture. General people are more comfortable in managerial positions, while detail-oriented people prefer everything to conform to a logical sequence. Understand which sort of person you are, and seek work that best harnesses your natural inclination.
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To reach the goals to which you aspire, you must compare yourself with people superior to you for motivation. Most people prefer to look at life the way they wish it to be, rather than as it truly is. Move out of your comfort zones and face reality. Don’t seek out or compare yourself with the average people around you, as doing so will only mire you in mediocrity rather than push you forward.
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Don’t ever give up, and make the most of the tools at your disposal. Take chances and invest in your best skills, and persist in the face of unfortunate events. Have faith in your considerable work and capabilities, and use them to create value for others.
Things will not always go the way that you want them to go, so you must not be discouraged by adversity in your job hunt. When you persist and consistently put forth your best effort, things are much more likely to go in your favor. Also, you must resist others’ efforts to undermine your efforts and potential; focus instead on doing everything in your power to fight on and complete the task at hand.
Having a goal or vision will propel you towards greater career success and happiness. Without a purpose, you will find yourself depressed and ultimately fail to achieve your goals. Do not subscribe to the unrealistic problem that you should never have problems, but instead regard problems as part of your overall growth strategy.
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It was a good article overall but I think it was a bit long and the number of rules mentioned were pretty long too. However, it is a helpful article for those who are on the verge of deciding a career and will be immensely helped by going through the whole article at least once.
hi
it is right to establish rules in order to get success in ones carrer life.
An excellent article which outlines the ways of achieving success in your field.Like every game even you work and job has a set of rules.Definitely ones who understand them and can apply them properly will be successful.This universal fact which many of us don’t care about has been brilliantly exemplified in this article
I could not agree with you more. It seems like when people are young, they want so much to go against the grain and be there own person. Then you grow up and learn that rules have a meaning and a purpose. You learn that rules will help you to succeed and excel in life.
This reminds me of Susan Sontag’s recently released diaries from when she was a young girl. She would list everything that she would want to accomplish and all the books she wanted to read. I think she applied the same logic and she definitely had success.
Hello
this is an excellent article to read. Well i become a regular reader of your website because the content you posted here is quite knowledgeable and interesting
Very inspiring words, indeed! My first instinct was to skip the list. But, after reading about your success with the two prestigious law firms, I was inspired to take a second look. It’s easy for an outsider to stand in judgment of another person’s life, goals or ambitions. However, success speaks for itself. And, it seems that you have clearly achieved that goal. Using your goals and having them properly fixed in your mind, allowed you entry into a world that many people only dream about. These goals served as a clearly marked path along which to travel. Thanks for the inspiring story. I’ve bookmarked your site and hope to return for another reading.
it was a really good blog you had acheived a good sucess in your life. but the rules are little hard to follow. but this article is very very useful.really one can succed in his life by this article.
It is an excellent article in such a situation where employees getting out of their companies.It is very hard to survive the next few weeks/months and find a job soon.But this is what happens in economic times like this..but it is a bit long,interesting though.
This was a very good article and I’m going to follow your lead and make myself a list of rules. The first list will be about getting a job, but the second list will be on what made me good at my previous job. I was one of the last employees to be laid off, so I have no animosity toward my previous employer. I do have one question though that perhaps someone can answer, how do you deal with having the job’s rules change without notice? I have been caught in a catch 22 a couple of times where one rule is to become independent in my work and the other one is to ask if there were questions. If a decision I made ended well, it went unnoticed, but if there was a problem, even one not having to do with the actual decision, then I would be critiqued for not asking for help in the decision. What would you recommend for these instances?
This is an excellent article to read.He shared his experience at law school.Then he instructs that once we understand and feel the rules everything comes together easier because we seem to be following our own nature–rather than going against it. And if we follow our nature we will find success.
Great article on Rules, Your Nature, and Your Career
Thanks so much!
I was attempting to log in to submit my Updated Attorney RESUME and unable to do so because: they have a client already with that email — yes, me. So, please I am working at the library and unable to waste too much time. Its September 17,2012 at1:40 pm.
This column really resonates with me. My own experience (and prospects) with respect to the excellent advice may be quirky, but that makes the advice perhaps even more important to me. I have Asperger’s Syndrome, and a shorthand way to explain Asperger’s is that you simply do not intuitively pick up on the rules, whatever they are. On the other hand, I picked up instinctively on the intellectual side of law and the analytical processes of lawyering, and excelled at law school and in the substantive aspects of the profession. The intangibles of the relationships in the profession are trickier for me, as they’d be in any profession – though to the extent they are formalized and cut-and-dried, in some ways, that makes it easier for me, because they’re easier to learn. To the extent I can learn and understand the rules of human relationships in my law office, I will succeed more. Thanks for the excellent advice.