Secret # 7: Eating Elephants Takes Time
Law careers are developed and created over time. Generally years, not months. A lawyer on the “fast track” may shave a year or so off her “metoric success,” but one rarely graduates from law school on Friday and becomes Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday. Yes, Barack Obama is a young president. But he’s been out of law school for twenty years. Yes, Sonia Sotomayor may soon be seated on the Supreme Court, but she’s been on the Federal Bench and practicing law for twenty years. Great lawyers choose great careers by developing well at each stage before they move up.
Successful lawyers know a law career is not a snack, it’s a banquet that will feed you for decades to come. As we explained in Secret #7
Eating Elephants takes time. Big projects can become overwhelming unless you handle them in manageable chunks over an appropriate period of time. Practice patience as a means to an end, and do something on the project every day. Eventually, the elephant will be consumed.
The point is not to finish the each project or stage of career development as quickly as possible. Law careers are meant to be enjoyed along the way as well.
