Speak Forcefully

A Return To The Dark Side

I guess I'm going to be a bit full-of-myself on this post, but then again my supersized ego comes as little surprise to those who actually know me.

I have been sticking my toe back into the business world, a world as it turns out I am far more comfortable in than law, and lo and behold I am weighing the merits of working with my father on a substantial “deal” that involves millions of dollars in what is essentially a private placement / investment deal with a dozen people. I am wary to become involved, yet at the same time drawn to it like a moth to a flame. Although I might be the closest thing the family has to a lawyer, I know my limits and there are certain places even angels fear to tread. This just might be one of them, but alas I’m reading up on “Secured Transactions” and related goodies anyway. It’s also nice to get some additional experience on the topic as I’m bound to confront the subject at Law School X later this year.

If there was ever a time I wished I had Secured Transactions at Cooley under my belt – this is it. Unfortunately, Secured Transactions wasn’t going to hit me until my 4th term and likewise I would have been a dirt poor Cooley student shelling out insane amounts of money for a Cooley education – and hence not involved in the business world except in an abstract, law school way. That is perhaps what I hated most about law school – the lack of real-world application to the concepts taught in class. I am not fond of being taught by professors who spent the last 25 years teaching instead of doing, although I understand (barely) the rational of the ABA’s disdain for practicing lawyers teaching law (an ABA requirement is that the bulk of faculty have to be full-time, non-practicing lawyers). I’d rather have people working the craft in the current marketplace passing along what they know over a professor who has spent most of his or her life teaching out of a book.

One of the most important things I took away from Cooley was the importance of money. When a business I started in 1990 lost millions and took a lot of people down with it – I lost my appetite for business and commerce. I wandered in a desert of low-income (sub $40,000 is low-income to me) jobs combined with a growing household of children and needs that began to outstrip my earning capacity. One thing led to another and I ended up at Cooley in my attempt to answer one of my passions plus get some bearing on what I wanted to actually do with my life. Thanks to law school and Cooley, my lust for business and capital returned in a way I hadn’t experienced in nearly 15 years. I’m not sure what those people did to my head, but I am thankful for their enlightenment in returning me to The Dark Side – where the metal meets the rail and ascetic living is for people who have already had their fill of money and success.

posted by majqa @ 2:04 PM