My son attends Old Saybrook High School in Connecticut and was suffering over typical inane rules that govern our education system. “You have to follow the rules of people who have authority over you.” I explained.
I was definitely not an unquestioning rule follower when I was his age. I would ask “why” if I thought a rule was unfair. I carried this trait into my career as an attorney. While I was respectful, I would suggest other ways that a project could be carried out besides “standard procedure.”
This worked well when I was in the public sector because I seemed to have a private sector efficiency mentality that served to minimize bureaucratic procedures. It worked less well in the private sector of law because my hope for efficiency, both for efficiency sake and to save client’s money, was antithetical to Big Law which requires maximizing billing. (Warning to all business owners: many lawyers are interested in billing hours so they will push a case all the way to trial and then settle when they likely could have settled right from the beginning).
When I was creating my own career path, I realized that autonomy was very important to me. Having to follow someone’s arbitrary rules chafed at me more than it seemed others.
If you have a similar blessing/curse, then you should seriously consider starting a business. You, then, can create your own arbitrary rules!
I was definitely not an unquestioning rule follower when I was his age. I would ask “why” if I thought a rule was unfair. I carried this trait into my career as an attorney. While I was respectful, I would suggest other ways that a project could be carried out besides “standard procedure.”
This worked well when I was in the public sector because I seemed to have a private sector efficiency mentality that served to minimize bureaucratic procedures. It worked less well in the private sector of law because my hope for efficiency, both for efficiency sake and to save client’s money, was antithetical to Big Law which requires maximizing billing. (Warning to all business owners: many lawyers are interested in billing hours so they will push a case all the way to trial and then settle when they likely could have settled right from the beginning).
When I was creating my own career path, I realized that autonomy was very important to me. Having to follow someone’s arbitrary rules chafed at me more than it seemed others.
If you have a similar blessing/curse, then you should seriously consider starting a business. You, then, can create your own arbitrary rules!