Had a good lunch with the associate today. He picked a wonderful restaurant, and we made it a two-and-a-half hour event. He told me about the novel he wrote, and the book of short stories he's hoping to produce in his spare time this summer, and I asked him what he could possibly be doing at a law firm. There are people who are passionate about the law, there's no question. There are people who genuinely love the intellectual challenge of what they do here. Absolutely. And there are people who don't, but there aren't any jobs where they would, so why not pick something that pays well and has some prestige. They don't have tremendous passions or productive activities they find fulfilling -- they like good food, good wine, exotic travel, nice things -- so the job that's going to make them happiest is the one that pays well, and they're smart, and this isn't the worst life imaginable, so they make the work-long-hours tradeoff, pretty easily, and they do this for a living. It's understandable. There's nothing else really pulling at them -- maybe family, eventually, but they recognize they have to earn a living somehow, and this is easier and more lucrative than construction, so here they are. It's fine. I get it. But then there's people like this guy. People who are smart enough to do this, and probably do it well and make a good living from it -- but it's never going to be enough, it's never going to be what they really want to be doing, and it's never going to send them home at night truly happy with who they've become. Yet they do it because they're frightened. They're frightened of taking that leap of faith, but not knowing how to turn what excites them and motivates them into a way to make a living, and not sure they really have the talent, and not at all confident it will all work out in the end. And worried that by giving up the safe, reliable, however sould-crushing income stream and societal respectability, they'll have made a disastrous choice that will come back to haunt them in the future. And they can't take the risk. And so they end up here -- not necessarily miserable, although in some cases probably, but resigned, beaten, conquered, tamed -- by a life that isn't really what they feel like they were meant to be doing, isn't really what they feel like they want to be doing, and isn't really what makes them able to look in the mirror without regrets. If he stays here, this is who he will become. He knows it, and, after today, I know it. He can stay, in the cloak of someone who loves the law, or in the cloak of someone who loves nothing so he settles for the law -- but either way, he's hiding. I told him I'd love to read his novel.
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