is what my high school econ teacher told me before I got sent to detention for sleeping in class. He had a video on that was completely irrelevant to the class (it was mostly because he didn’t want to teach). In an effort to defend myself I pointed at someone else in class that was passed out, and that’s when he used the phrase. It’s a phrase I’ll never forget.
The irony of that interaction is that it basically sums up how I was as a kid and admittedly well into my early twenties, I really didn’t care what others were doing (including homework). That let me do things, learn about things, create things that other folks weren’t doing. Then, I went to law school and then I saw that school rewarded paying attention to what others were doing. So I decided to do what the others were doing (namely homework, are you seeing the pattern here?) and overnight I was a better student.
In the background, however, there was a level of discontent that I needed to shrug off trying to fit in the mold. Being the rebel that I am, I went and took business school course at the same time because I figured I was already paying way too much for an education so I might as well get my money’s worth. I recruited a few other law school students to do an entrepreneurship class with me. My pitch was “let’s show those business kids we can do it just as good as them.” Well, we did, we scored the highest marks in the class and had the most profitable business (all the groups had to start a business idea as a class project).
After law school I went and did what everyone else in place was supposed to do, get a job at a big law firm. There was a big part of me that knew I didn’t want to do that job, but I did it anyways because I felt that I was good at it and it would be wrong to throw away an opportunity that others lusted after. While I was wrong to do that, I learned a lot, and then I went and did what you’re supposed to do after working at big firm and worked in-house at a company. It was in-house at a company that I was able to meet amazingly creative folks who didn’t just fall in line. They didn’t just do things because they had to, they did things because they wanted to. I can’t pinpoint the date, but there was a moment when I was in-house when my ability to conform broke, so I started doing everything different and didn’t pay attention to what the others were doing. I did what made sense to me. I went back to work at a law firm, which is not what people typically do. I went from smaller to big firms, again, not what people do. Then I went and started a company, this is definitely not what lawyers do. I can’t tell the future and can’t tell you whether this made me successful by objective terms. I can, however, tell you that this has made me ten times happier and has given me the creative freedom that I lost when I went to law school.
It’s just a nice reminder to ask yourself — Are you living your life because you feel like that’s what is expected, or are you not worrying about what others are doing?
