The real story behind my career pivot
How my upbringing and unique circumstances in my personal life influenced my eventual decision to leave the law
This post is going to be a bit more personal than my other articles. To be sure, this isn’t the first time I’m sharing publicly about my career pivot. What I haven’t done before, though, is to share how my upbringing and personal life influenced the path I took that led me to where I am today.
Part of why I’m writing about all this now is because of a particular type of reaction from people when they hear I left the practice of law. They think it was driven by courage or bravery. Often it’s because they’re putting themselves in my shoes, and feel an enormous amount of anxiety around possibly leaving the law themselves.
So anyone who made the leap was somehow able to overcome it. Or so the thinking goes.
But the real reason I ended up making my career pivot had nothing to do with bravery. By the time I left law, I had already suffered through several setbacks—including getting fired and failing at entrepreneurship—and was just looking for a quick win. Anywhere. That’s what led me to join a startup at a fraction of the salary.
The upside of my “bold” move though, was that it gave me the chance to start over, completely anew, without the mental burden or baggage of having my personal identity tied up with being a lawyer.
My goal today is for me to share with you what else was happening in my life that led me to make the change. Spoiler alert: There was no grand plan. Whatever happened, it was far less about bravery and far more about me scrambling to figure out my next steps.
And it all happened because of unique situational factors that took place in my personal life between 2010 and 2015.
This is my story.