I thought I'd share my recent story since stumbling across the MMM blog. I'm a 37-year old lawyer in a major city. I started later than average and only graduated at age 33. I did a year in Big Law and then jumped/was lured to an in-house position at a major financial institution. Part of the luring was a sort of 'start at the middle, rise to the top, VP by 40' tale spun for me. Part of what brought me to law and some other past choices was a combination of being inquisitive and alive to opportunity, often opportunity that others fail to see. I thought myself somewhat clever for making the same or more pay for less hours and less pressure than some of my peers. I also thought that my legal training (which was top shelf) would differentiate me from the sea of MBAs and BA + industry credentials (e.g. CFA) that populate middle and upper management here. I thought that my ability to analyze, think and communicate me would put me ahead of most folks in the qualitative camp (the quants can run their ship and I have no ability to compete with them in their space).
What does this all have to do with MMM? Well, to put it simply, I have not been very successful. Oh, I'm upper-middle class six-figure downtown lawyer sort of successful, which I am fully aware puts me in a fantastic position in life relatively. (As an aside, however, the enormous debt I incurred and the opportunity cost of law school and time away from work still put me well behind where I'd have been if I never went in the first place, and will for several more years). What I'm apparently not very successful at is the corporate game. I fit in prett well (mostly as a chameleon) with the corporate law and management stooges. But I'm no where near a fast track. I have learned the hard way that politics and perfect hair matter a lot more than credentials, ability, merit and so on. I still seem to pass even this test, however. In my particular company and most in my industry, there is a real demand for tenure, time on post, etc. It's not unusual for people to take 20 years or more to reach that executive level. That's actually not a bad thing in itself, because the whole go-getting greed-is-good young buck group probably shouldn't be running the show.
No, this is simple and very personal - I simply believed the story I was sold that my uniqueness would be rewarded by the organization and I would be on my way. I didn't really think on the legitimacy of this line of thinking; I merely thought I was making the rational choice based on the options in front of me to maximize my outcomes. Absent a burning passion for one thing, I would simply prefer to get the best return on my inputs. By going into this role, I ended up wrecking my legal career. I'm seen by the law firms as a business person. Unless I come into a large corporate law environment as a senior special partner, i.e. I bring lots of clients, I am probably shut out of that life. Which is fine, because it's not much of a life. But I am also shut out of senior management in my company and industry. I'm seen as a technician and not suitable for real management or leadership positions. Time and again I have witnessed 'tenured generalists' of modest ability and education advance while those with true ability and talent are kept in their jobs (because they are so good at it).
A while back I threw in the towel and joined my company's legal department. This is a nice, quiet place where hope and careers go to die. Folks don't really come out of this department except on a stretcher or with a gold watch. This left me pretty despondent. I gave up a lot for law school - wife and I quit our jobs and moved cities, several years in roach central rental apartments, scraping by (a mental concept I have realized post-MMM) and some other family and personal stuff. In short, I HAD to make this career change worth it through sheer dint of hard work and achievement, so that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. To find myself essentially shut out of 'real law', my purported profession, and also shut out of management, I judged myself a professional failure.
I guess this will sound like a ridiculous sob story - high income white collar worker remains unsatisfied - but the myopia, sacrifice and intense focus needed to get here in the first place clouds a wider perspective. I spent some time trying to get used to this more modest career and get comfortable with relative success - I was clothed and fed, lived well in the first world and had a modestly enjoyable job. All in all, not bad. But the thought of doing this for the next 25 years or so left me cold, up nights (literally).
MMM changed all that. While that sounds dramatic and I don't tend to heap praise on others, MMM has done something elegant yet compelling that really struck a cord with me, even when others in the same vein (e.g. ERE) didn't.
More below. Apologies for the novel.
