Credentials Won't Get You In The Club

And how I got started on my crusade against "golden tickets"

When I was growing up, I wished for nothing more than to be accepted by American society. My parents are immigrants, and I saw firsthand how challenging life could be when you were an outsider who struggled with the English language. So to me, becoming successful required me to be the opposite—articulate, polished, and part of the system.

I thought that becoming a successful lawyer would be my golden ticket.

Of course, in the legal profession, becoming successful—at least in the conventional sense—requires that you collect a series of other smaller, but no less important credentials.¹ It’s golden tickets all the way down.

That’s how I ended up spending my first two years out of college obsessed with getting a high LSAT score. I gave up hanging out with friends and partying to take practice tests. I knew how status conscious the profession was—with its focus on grades, school rankings, and elite credentials. I knew that getting into a top school would open doors that I never imagined walking through.

So I happily made that sacrifice.