The Joy of Passion - Finding Your Calling

Abstract

The idea of finding career passion troubles most people.
Deciding on a career and committing to it while maintaining
balance in the other areas of one's life is an arduous task. As
educators, we often admonish students that passion does not
always connect to high grade point averages (or high salaries).
However, as a student, one might have stumbled upon one's
passion but was too distracted to recognize it.
Therefore, as we see it, the key in any professional pursuit is
that one must enjoy what he does for a living. If one has a passion
for his career, he is at an advantage. If he considers his career
pursuit to be a true calling, that is even better.
What does it mean to have passion? The Merriam-Webster
dictionary defines passion as "a strong liking or desire for or
devotion to some activity, object, or concept."

Full text

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THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING YOUR
CALLING
Harvey
Gilmore*
and
Geoffrey
M
Smith**
I.
INTRODUCTION
..........................................................
260
II.
REASONS
PEOPLE
HATE
WHAT
THEY
DO
FOR
A
LIV
IN
G
...........................................................................
262
A.
The
pressure
to
perform
and
get
to
the
top
...............
263
B.
The
pressure
to
STAY
on
top
after
getting
there
.......
263
C.
Going
into
a
different
field
instead
ofpursuing
one's
ow
n
dream
.................................................................
264
D. Having
to
provide
for
one's
family
...........................
265
E.
Being
trapped
in
professional
life
because
the
money
is
g
o
o
d
..........................................................................
2 6
5
F . H
opelessness
.............................................................
265
G.
The
realization
that
the
drive
to
the
top
was
not
worth
th
e
trip
.......................................................................
2 6
5
H.
The
hope
for
greener
pastures
...
anywhere
.............
266
III.
THE
HOPELESSNESS
OF
IT
ALL-JOB
BURNOUT
......................................................................
266
IV.
CHASING
THE
MONEY
..............................................
270
V.
GETTING
OUT
OF
THE
RAT
RACE
........................
275
VI.
HEARING
THE
CALL
.................................................
280
VII.
TWO MISFITS'
(OUR)
REAL-LIFE
EXPERIENCES
WITH
THE
REALITIES
OF
WORK
..........................
281
A.
Gilmore
and
the
Rat
Race-Gilmore
Lost
...
Badly!.
281
B.
From
Corporate
Flunky
to
Law
School
....................
286
C.
From
High
School
Dropout
to
College
Professor
....
289
1.
Escape
from
High
School
...................................
289
*
Professor
of
Taxation
and Business
Law at
Monroe College, The
Bronx,
New
York; B.S.
(Accounting),
Hunter
College
of
the
City
University
of
New
York
(1987),
M.S.
(Taxation),
Long
Island
University
(1990),
J.D.,
Southern New
England School
of
Law
(1998),
LL.M.,
Touro
College
Jacob
D.
Fuchsberg
Law
Center
(2005).
**Professor
of
Sociology
and
Business
Writing
at
Monroe College, The
Bronx,
New
York;
B.B.A.
(Business
Administration),
Baruch
College
of
the
City
University
of
New
York
(1982);
M.A.
(Management),
New
School
for
Social
Research
(1990);
M.A.
(Sociology)
New
School for
Social
Research
(1996).
The
authors
express their
gratitude
to
the
exceptional
efforts
of
all
of
the
editors,
as
well as
their patience,
help,
and
friendship.

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
2.
The
Decision
to
Go
Into
Teaching
......................
293
3.
Meeting our
Calling:
Loving Post-Corporate
Life
as
Professors and
Having
Passion
in
the
Classroom.
297
D.
Smith's
Profound
Question
.......................................
300
E
.
The
N
ext
Step
............................................................
302
F.
Sm
ith
's
"Beshert"
....................................................
303
G.
Sm
ith's
Beshert
Redux
..............................................
304
H.
Smith's
Experience
Counseling
Rat
Racers
..............
305
VIII. THE BENEFITS OF
ONE'S
CALLING
.....................
307
A.
H
elping
those
in
need
............................................... 307
B.
Loving
What
You
D
o
.................................................
309
C.
Having
Fun
with
Like
Minded
Coworkers
................
311
IX.
CONCLUSION
...............................................................
312
I.
INTRODUCTION
"Take
this
job
and
shove
it,
Iain
't
working
here
no
more.
The
idea
of
finding
career
passion troubles
most
people.
Deciding
on
a
career
and committing
to
it
while
maintaining
balance
in
the
other
areas
of
one's
life
is
an
arduous
task.
As
educators, we often
admonish
students
that
passion
does not
always
connect
to
high
grade
point
averages
(or
high
salaries).
However,
as
a
student, one
might
have
stumbled upon
one's
passion but
was
too
distracted
to
recognize
it.
Therefore,
as
we
see
it,
the
key
in
any
professional
pursuit
is
that
one
must
enjoy
what
he
does
for
a
living.
If
one
has
a
passion
for
his
career,
he is
at an
advantage.
If
he
considers his
career
pursuit
to
be
a
true
calling,
that
is
even
better.
What
does
it
mean
to
have
passion?
The
Merriam-Webster
dictionary defines
passion
as
"a strong liking
or
desire for
or
devotion
to
some
activity,
object,
or
concept.",
2
We
are
at
this
point
in
our
lives
as
college
professors
as
we
love
and
enjoy what
we
do
'JOHNNY
PAYCHECK,
TAKE
THIs
JOB
AND
SHOVE
IT
(Epic
Records
1977).
2
Passion
Definition,
MERRIAM-WEBSTER,
available
at
http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/passion
(last
visited
Sep.
21,
2014).
260 [Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JoY
OF
PASSION: FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
261
when
we
go
to
class.
We
do
not
classify what
we
do
as
going
to
work,
because
we
have
too much
fun
teaching
to ever
call
this
work.
What,
then,
is
a
"calling"?
The
Merriam-Webster dictionary
defines
a
calling
as
"a
strong
inner
impulse
toward
a
particular
course
of
action
especially
when
accompanied
by
conviction
of
divine influence."
3
While the
religious
aspect
of
a
calling
is
certainly
relevant, many people
see
the
big
picture
of
a
career
calling
as
work
that
is
socially significant
and
beneficial.
A
person
with
a
Calling
works
not
for financial
gain
or
Career advancement,
but
instead
for
the fulfillment
that
doing
the
work
brings
to
the
individual.
The
word
"calling"
was
originally
used
in
a
religious
context,
as
people
were
understood
to
be "called"
by
God
to
do
morally
and
socially
significant
work.
While
the
modem
sense
of
"calling"
may
have
lost
its
religious connection,
work
that
people
feel
called
to
do
is
usually
seen
as
socially
valuable-an
end
in
itself-involving
activities
that
may,
but
need
not
be,
pleasurable.
4
We
strongly
agree
that
what
we
do
today
is
in
fact
our
career
calling,
as
the
sum
total
of
our
professional
experiences invariably
brought
us to
this
point.
In
the
legal
world,
several
practitioners
have
also
recognized
how practicing
law can be
a
calling:
If
a
law firm
associate
experiences
her
work
to
be
a
calling,
then
she
is
motivated
by that
calling
itself,
sees
that
calling
to
be
a
mission,
passion,
and/or privilege, expects
a
better
world
and
fulfillment
from
her
calling,
and looks
forward
to more work.
5
3
Calling
Definition,
MERRIAM-WEBSTER,
available
at
http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/calling
(last
visited Sept.
21,
2014).
4
Amy
Wrzesniewski
et
al.,
Jobs,
Careers,
and
Callings:
People's
Reactions
to
Their
Work,
31
J.
RES.
PERSONALITY
21,
22
(1997).
5
Peter
H.
Huang
&
Rick
Swedloff,
Authentic
Happiness
and
Meaning
at
Law
Firms,
58
SYRACUSE
L.
REv.
335,
343-44
(2008).

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
It's
really
a
calling,
meaning
one derives
inspiration
from
work
itself.
What
matters
is
fulfillment
and
satisfaction
from
work
that
is
well-done,
as
opposed
to financial
gain
or
career
advancement.
6
So,
how
do
you
know
if
you
are
called
to
do
this
work?
That,
my
friend,
is
a
tough
question.
It
is
hard
to
know
sometimes,
unless
you
try
to
turn
away
from
it-and
find
yourself
lost
and
miserable without
it.
A
calling
is
powerful-it
will
not
let
us
go.
When
you
are
doing
work
you are
called
to
do,
you
find
that
time
flies
by.
You
are
doing
what
you
love.
You
know
that
you
are
home.
All
of
your talents, your
experiences, your
heart,
all
mesh;
it
all
comes
together
and
you help
someone. Then you know
that
all
the
trouble
is
worth
it,
that
you
were born
to
do
this
work.
II.
REASONS
PEOPLE
HATE
WHAT
THEY
DO
FOR
A
LIVING
The
above
introduction notwithstanding,
there
are
many
people
who
detest
what they
do
for
a
living.
Many people
feel
this
discontent
irrespective
of
their profession,
whether
it
is
law,
accounting,
teaching,
truck
driving,
economics, house
painting,
sanitation,
or anything
else. The
reasons
for
this
discontent are
nearly
as
many
as
the
people
who
hate
their
jobs.
The
reasons
include,
among
others:
6
Peter
H.
Huang,
Happiness
in
Business
or
Law,
12
TENN.
J.
Bus.
L.
153,
161-
62(2011).
7
Ann
K.
Chapman,
Letter
to
a
Law
School
Graduate,
35
WILLAMETTE
L.
REv.
393,
397
(1999).
[Vol.
16.3
262

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION: FINDING
YOUR CALLING
A.
The
pressure
to
perform
and
get
to
the
top.
This
dynamic was
expertly
portrayed
in
an
episode
of
the
classic
television
series,
"The
Twilight
Zone."
8
The
scene
is
with
the
boss,
Misrell
(played by
Howard
Smith),
severely dressing
down
his already
ulcer-ridden
employee,
Williams
(brilliantly
played
by
James Daly),
after Williams
lost
a
key business contract:
Misrell:
Don't
sit
down!
And
don't
con
me,
Williams.
It
was
your pet project. Your
pet
project!
Then
it
was
your
idea
to
give
it
to
that little
college greenie.
Now,
get with
it,
Williams!
Get
with
it,
boy!
So
what's
left,
Williams? Not
only
has your
pet
project backfired,
but
it's
sprouted
wings
and
left
the
premises.
I'll
tell
you
what's
left
to
us
in
my
view:
A
deep
and
abiding
concern
about your
judgment
in
men.
This
is
a
push business,
Williams-a
push,
push,
push
business. Push
and
drive!
But,
personally,
you
don't
delegate
responsibilities to
little
boys.
You
should know
it
better
than anyone else.
A
push,
push,
push business,
Williams.
It's
push, push,
push,
all
the
way,
all
the
time!
It's
push,
push,
push,
all the
way,
all
the
time,
right
on
down
the
line!
9
Williams:
Fat
boy,
why
don't
you
shut your
mouth!
10
B.
The
pressure
to
STAY
on
top
after
getting
there.
In
legal
practice,
once
one
makes
it
to
partnership,
one
should
be
able
to
relax
and
enjoy
the
fruits
of
his
labor.
That
should
be
the
end
of
the
grind. Or
is
it?
"In
the
words
of
one
partner
with
a
large
firm in Los
Angeles,
'the corporate
partners
battle the litigators.
8
The
Twilight
Zone:
A
Stop
at
Willoughby
(CBS
television
broadcast
May
6,
1960).
9Id.
10
Id.
263

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
The young
Turks
fight the
old
guard.
The
workaholics
fight
the
civic-minded.
I
thought making
partner
was the
end
of
the
struggle
for
survival.
It
was
only
the
beginning.""'
Another
law
partner
made
the
following
observation.
This,
then,
is life
in
the
big
firm:
It
is
in
the
interests
of
clients
that
senior
partners
work
inhuman hours,
year
after
year, and
constantly
be
anxious
about
retaining
their
business.
And
it is
in
the
interests
of
senior
partners that
junior
partners
work
inhuman hours, year
after
year,
and
constantly
be
anxious about
retaining
old
clients
and
attracting
new
clients.
And
it
is
in
the interests
of
junior
partners that
senior
associates
work
inhuman
hours,
year
after
year, and
constantly
be
anxious
about
retaining
old
clients and
attracting
new
clients and
making
partner.
And
most
of
all,
it
is
in
everyone's
interests
that
the
newest
members
of
the
profession-the
junior
associates-be
willing
to
work
inhuman
hours,
year
after
year,
and
constantly
be
anxious
about
everything-about
retaining
old
clients
and
attracting
new
clients
and
making
partner
and
keeping
up
their
billable hours.
The
result? Long
hours,
large
salaries,
and one
of
the
unhealthiest
and
unhappiest
professions
on
earth.12
C.
Going
into
a
different
field
instead
ofpursuing
one's
own
dream.
"Sadly,
we
often
see
this when
a
child
feels
compelled
to
join
the
'family business'
out
of
loyalty rather
than love."
'13
11
Deborah K.
Holmes,
Learning from Corporate
America:
Addressing
Dysfunction
in
the
Large
Law
Firm,
31 GONZ.
L.
REv.
373,
404
(1996).
12
Patrick
J.
Schiltz,
On
Being
a
Happy,
Healthy,
and
Ethical
Member
of
an
Unhappy, Unhealthy,
and
Unethical
Profession,
52
VAND.
L.
REv.
871,
902-03
(1999).
13
JOSEPH
G.
ALLEGRETTI,
LOvING
YOUR
JOB, FINDING
YOUR
PASSION:
WORK
AND
THE
SPIRITUAL
LIFE
63
(Paulist
Press
2000).
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
D.
Having
to
provide
for
one's family.
"I
hate
what
I
do,
but
I
have
no
choice.
I've
got
to
earn
money
for
my
family."'
14
E.
Being
trapped
in
professional
life
because
the
money
is
good.
"'It
pays
well,
so
I
do
it,
but
it
leaves
a
bad
taste
in
my
mouth,'
says
a
successful
corporate
lawyer."'
5
Another
attorney
complained,
"I'm
very
well
paid
for
what
I
do,
but sometimes
I
feel
more like
a
prostitute
than
a
professional."'
6
F.
Hopelessness.
"It
takes
all
my
energy
just
to
make
it
through
the day.
Sometimes
tears
well up
in
my
eyes
for
no
reason.
I
dream
about
jumping
in
my
car
and
taking
off
somewhere, anywhere,
by
myself."'
17
A
computer programmer mentioned,
"I
spend
eight
hours
a
day
punching
data
into
a
computer.
I'm
not
doing
anything
for
anyone."'
8
G.
The
realization
that
the
drive
to
the
top
was
not
worth
the
trip.
"Too
many
people
claw
and
climb
their way
to the
top,
only
to
find
that
it
wasn't
worth
the
effort.
When
they
finally
make
it
to
14
Id.
at
29.
1
5
Id.
16
Id.
at
1.
17
Id.
at
29.
18
1Id.
at
1.
265

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
the
top
of
the
ladder
of
success,
they discover
that
it
was leaning
against the wrong
wall."'
9
H.
The
hope
for
greener pastures
...
anywhere.
"We've
all
known
people
like
this,
people
who
seem
congenitally
unable
to
stay
at
a
job
for
more
than
a
few
months.
They start with high
hopes
but
become
disillusioned
as
soon
as
reality
sets
in-which
doesn't
take
long.
Once
their
dream
is
shattered,
they
flee
for
greener
pastures.
They
spend
their
entire
life
flitting
from
job
to
job
in
a
vain quest
to
capture the
Holy
Grail
of
the
workplace,
the
once
and
future
job
that
will
satisfy
all
their
needs
and
desires."20
Gilmore:
Speaking
for
myself,
that
is
certainly
true.
My
own
disillusionment with
professional
life
resulted
in
me
switching
accounting
jobs
three
times
in
less
than
five
years.
III.
THE
HOPELESSNESS
OF
IT
ALL-JOB
BURNOUT
.
Hopelessness
leads to
job
burnout.
The
Merriam-Webster
dictionary gives several
excellent
definitions
of
what
it means
to
be
hopeless:
"having
no
expectation
of
good
or
success; not
susceptible
to
remedy
or
cure;
incapable
of
redemption
or
improvement; giving
no
ground
for
hope;
incapable
of
solution,
management, or
accomplishment."
21
We
have
been
there. Believe
us-there
are
few feelings
in
professional
life
that
are
worse than
going
to
a
job
you
hate
to
engage
in
a
career
pursuit
you
already
know
to
be
an
exercise
in
futility.
This type
of
experience
is
the
antithesis
of
pursuing
one's
'9
Id.
at
38.
20 Id.
at
18.
21
Hopeless
Definition,
MERRIAM-WEBSTER,
available
at
http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/hopeless
(last
visited
Sept.
25,
2014).
266
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION: FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
true
professional
calling
and
is
an
anathema
to
a
worker's
overall
well-being.
A
humorous
article
(looking
at
how
overwhelming
career
dissatisfaction
can
ultimately
result
in
employee
burnout)
included
the
following multiple-choice questions:
1.
When
it
comes
to
your
career
path,
which
of
the
following
statements
are
most
relevant
to
your
situation?
A.
My
supervisor
and
I
have
talked extensively
about
where
I
am
going
and
what
I
can
achieve,
and have
developed challenging but attainable
goals
to
help
me
get
there.
B.
I
receive
a
lot
of
positive
feedback
from
upper
management
and have been
told
that
there
are
good
things
in
my
future,
but
I'm
not
sure
how
or
when
I
will
get
there.
C.
I
have been
in
the
same
position
for
so
long,
my
business
cards
have our
company's
old
logo.
D.
I'm
pretty
sure
I
just
got
demoted
last
week.
2.
Which
statement
describes
your
typical
workweek?
A.
My
company
has
made
cutbacks
and
I
have had
to
pick
up the
extra
slack.
I
now
put
in
the
hours
of
two
people.
B.
The
hours
I
work
fluctuate
depending
on
how
busy
the
company
is.
There
are
seasons when
I
put
in
extra
time,
but
I
am
compensated
for the
extra
work
with
more
time
off
in
the
slower months.
C.
I
consistently
put
in
40
to
45
hours
a
week.
D.
What,
you
mean there
are
people
who
work
fewer
than
60
hours
a
week?
3. When
it
comes to
personal
recognition,
which
of
the
following
do
you
most
relate
with?
A.
I
am
so
often
referred
to
by my
employee
number
in
the office
that
I
sometimes
forget
my
own
name.
267

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
B.
I
hear
from
my
boss
often-every
time
I
do
something wrong.
C.
I
receive
a
lot
of feedback-both
positive
and
negative-from
my manager.
D. The
last
time
I
received
a
raise,
I
used
the
extra
money
to
buy
Milli
Vanilli
concert tickets.
And finally:
4.
Which
of
the
following
best
describes
your
relationship
with
your
boss?
A.
I
feel
that
my
sole
purpose
at
the company
is
to
make
my boss
look
good.
B.
We
have
a
solid
relationship
based
on
mutual
respect
and
appreciation.
C.
I
do
a
great
job
...
when
I
do the
opposite
of
what
my
boss
does.
D.
I
think
I
saw
my
boss
once last
month, right
before
the
door
to
his
office was
slammed.
22
Gilmore:
If
I
had
to
answer
those questions
in
approximately
late
1991
or
early
1992,
my
answer
choices
undoubtedly
would
have
been
D
for
all
of
them.
When
all
one
does
is
work,
and
work,
and
work,
and
gets
no
satisfaction
from
his efforts,
this
results
in
that individual
suffering
job
burnout.
The
Merriam-Webster dictionary
describes
burnout
as
"exhaustion
of
physical or emotional
strength
or
motivation
usually
as
a
result
of
prolonged
stress
or
frustration.
'' 23
Some
of
the
classic
symptoms
of
job
burnout
include the
following:
*
A
generally
negative
attitude
often
paired
with
the
feeling
that nothing
is
going
to
work
out.
•
Inability
to
concentrate.
22
Job
Burnout:
Signs
You
Need
a
Change,
AOL
JOBS
(Sept.
2,2009,
2:56
PM),
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/09/02/ob-bumout-signs-you-need-a-change/.
23
Burnout
Definition,
MERRIAM-WEBSTER,
available
at
http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/burnout
(last
visited
Sept.
14,
2014).
268
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION: FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
"
General
apathy towards your work,
chores, and
other tasks.
*
Feelings
of
stagnation.
"
A lack
of
interest
in
social
activities and
being
with
others.
*
Difficulty with
healthy
habits
like
exercise, diet,
and
regular
sleep.
"
Feeling
like
you're
never
doing
enough.
"
Neglecting
your own needs
(and
putting
the needs
of
others
ahead
of
your
own).
*
Personal
values
and
beliefs
lose
their
importance.
*
Short
temper.
"
Constant
exhaustion.
"
Feelings
of
inefficacy.
*
Feelings
of
detachment
from
people
and
things
you
care
about.
*
Frequent boredom.
"
Psychosomatic complaints,
such
as
headaches, lingering
colds,
and
other
issues
with
a
cause
that's
difficult
to
identify.
*
The
denial
of
these
feelings.
24
Gilmore:
Needless
to
say,
I
suffered
through
the
burnout
stage
for
years.
My
job
stunk,
nothing
was
fun,
and
I
really
did
not
have
much
to
look
forward
to.
Sundays
were
depressing
precisely
because
Monday
was
coming!
25
Even
when
I
took
my
semi-annual
vacations,
I
just
did
not
have
the
strength
to
go
anywhere;
I
just
stayed
home,
watched
TV,
and
vegetated.
Then my
furlough
ended
and
it
was
back to the
salt
mines
and
more
career
failure.
More
than
once,
I
thought
to
myself:
"I
went
through
four
years
of
24
Adam Dachis,
Burnout
Is
Real:
How
to
Identify
and
Address
Your
Burnout
Problem,
LIFEHACKER
(Feb.
13,
2012,
8:00
AM),
http://lifehacker.com/5884439/bumout-is-real-how-to-identify-the-problem-and-
how-to-fix-it.
2 5
See,
e.g., DEBORAH
ARRON,
RUNNING
FROM
THE
LAW:
WHY
GOOD
LAWYERS
ARE
GETTING
OUT
OF
THE
LEGAL PROFESSION
130
(4th
ed.
2004)
("Pretty
soon
I
contracted 'Sunday Syndrome,'
dreading Monday
when
I
awoke
on
Sunday.
Eventually,
the
only
good
time
of
the
week
was
Friday night
because
I
still
had
all
of
Saturday before
I
felt
that dread
of
heading
back
to
the
office
again.").
269

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
college
for
this?"
Had
my
work
life
truly
become
that
banal?
Yes,
it
had--quickly.
For
those
practicing
(and
perhaps non-practicing
legal
escapees)
their
similar
question
is:
"I
went
through
four
years
of
college
plus
three
years (or
more)
of
law
school
to
see
my
efforts
come
to
this?"
Unfortunately,
when
one
is
in
that kind
of
situation,
it
is
very
difficult
to
visualize anything
resembling
success
when
the
best
one
has
experienced
is
mediocrity.
IV.
CHASING
THE
MONEY
One
major
reason
for
professional dissatisfaction
in
the
legal
profession
is
that
attorneys
(among many
others)
too
often
choose
the higher
paying
job
instead
of
the
job
that
truly
makes
them
happy.
26
Why
do
law
students
and
attorneys
go
for
the
higher
paying
job?
One
reason
is
that
younger
attorneys
are
lured
by
the
tantalizingly
large
salaries
offered
by
big
firms-often
to the
detriment
of
their
physical
and
emotional
health.
In
return
for
the
large
salaries, young attorneys end up
working
insanely
long
hours
just
to
maintain
their
status
quo,
and
to
stay
on the
partnership
track.
Big Law, Big
Angst:
Big
Law
is
a
shorthand
reference
for
working
at a
large
firm
in
a
big
city.
Salaries
for
law
school
graduates
who
join
Big
Law firms
begin
in
six
figures
and
are
trending
even
higher.
Partners
in
Big
Law
firms
fare
even
better, oftentimes
earning
upwards
of
a
million
dollars
per year.
The price
for
this
level
of
success
does
not
come
cheap.
The billable
hour
is
the
engine
of
financial
success
in large
firms.
Consequently,
lawyers
in
large
law
firms
work
at
a
punishing
pace,
especially
new
associates
at
the
26
Lance
McMillan,
Tortured
Souls:
Unhappy Lawyers
Viewed
Through
the
Medium
of
Film,
19
SEToN
HALL J.
SPORTS
&
ENT.
L.
31,
70
(2009)
("Law
students
choose
higher-paying
jobs
over
their
hearts'
desires.").
[Vol.
16.3
270

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
271
bottom
of
the
economic ladder
who
are
expected,
minimally,
to
bill
2,000 or
more
hours
a
year.
Unhappiness
and
poor
health
follow.
27
Is
chasing
the
top
dollar
the
only
reason young
lawyers
are
willing
to
sell
out
their
desire
for
a
better-balanced
life?
28
No,
not
entirely.
There
is
a
practical consideration
as
well.
The truth
is
obtaining
a
legal
education
is
very expensive.
29
As such, law
students
have
rather massive
student
loans
that
they
need
to
pay
back
when
they graduate.
In
making their
career decision
as
to
where
they want
to
work,
a
recent
graduate has
to
choose
between
a
big
firm
job
that
will
pay
the
bills
and
a
job
they
will
find
personally
fulfilling.
Apart
from the
lust
for
money,
there
is
the
need
for
money.
Law
school
is
expensive.
To
pursue
their
dream
of
becoming
a
lawyer,
more
and
more
students
are
financing
their
law school
studies.
Enormous
post-education
debt
is
the
result,
oftentimes
reaching
six
figures.
The
existence
of
liabilities
on
this
scale creates
pressure
on
the
debtors
to
sell
their
services
to
the
highest
bidder.
In
the words
of
one
scholar,
student
debt
has
become the
all-consuming
factor
governing the
lives
of
many
new
lawyers:
Most
law
students graduate
with
very
high
educational debt.
For
some,
the debt
can
without
exaggeration
be described
as
"staggering,"
in
the
sense
that repayment
according
to
a
"standard"
ten-year
schedule would
leave
the
graduate
with
full-time
employment
but
scant
discretionary
income.
Such
27
Id.
at
66.
28
Id.
at
71
("Thousands
of
lawyers
choose
to give
up
a
healthy, happy,
well-
balanced
life
for
a
less
healthy,
less
happy
life
dominated by
work.").
29
See,
e.g.,
Janine
Robben,
After
Law
School,
Now
What?
Law's
"Lost
Generation" Looks
For
Work,
70
OR.
ST.
B.
BULL.
26,
27
(2010)
("According
to
Jodi
Heintz,
Lewis
&
Clark's
director
of
public
relations, the average 2009
Lewis
&
Clark Law
School
graduate
has
a
law
school
student
loan
debt
of
$84,618."); Paul
Horowitz,
Book
Review:
What
Ails the
Law
Schools?,
111
MICH.
L.
REv.
955,
962 (2013)
("For
example,
tuition
at
Yale
Law
School
was
$12,450
in
1987;
in
2010,
it
was
$50,750.").

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
a
graduate
can survive
only
by
sacrificing
consumer
goods
and
services,
postponing
having
a
home
and
a
family,
and
accruing
additional
credit
card
debt.
The
loan
repayment
problem
is
greatest
for
law
students
who
would
like
to
be
self-sacrificing up to
a
reasonable
point:
those
who
decide
to
go
to
law
school
because they want
to
serve
the
public
as
"public
interest"
lawyers,
such
as
staff
attorneys
at
legal
aid
organizations.
From
this
perspective,
pragmatism-and
not
the
lust for
money-drives
many students
into
high-paying
positions.
The
result
is
that
legal
jobs
with
the
largest
starting
salaries
are
populated with
people who
do
not
want
to
be where
they
are,
but
for
the
money.30
Gilmore: Let
us
assume,
for
example,
that
I
am
a
recent
graduate
who finished
in
the
top
10%
of
my
class. My
lifelong
passion
is
to
preserve
the
environment.
Consequently,
I
hope
to
practice
environmental
law
when
I
graduate.
In
the
meantime,
I
have
over
$100,000
of
student
loans
that
I
have
to start paying
back
six
months after
my
graduation.
I
have
interviewed with
several
environmental
law firms,
all
of
which
are
offering
starting
salaries
averaging $63,000.
3 1 I
also
interviewed
with
XYZ
Chemical
Corporation, an organization
that
is
not
exactly
sympathetic
to
environmental
concerns.
But,
XYZ
offers
me
a
job
as
its
in-house counsel
at a
starting
salary
of
$157,000
per
year.
So,
I
swallow
my
desire to
defend environmental
concerns
and
take the
higher
paying
job
with XYZ.
One
of
my
duties
with XYZ
is
to
go
to
court and
get
restraining
orders
against
environmental
30
McMillan,
supra
note
26, at
72-3.
See
also
Mary
Sue
Backus
&
Paul
Marcus,
The
Right
to
Counsel
in
Criminal
Cases,
A
National Crisis,
57
HASTINGS
L.J.
1031,
1126
(2006)
("Low
pay
and
significant law
school student-loan
debt
leave
many
defenders and
prosecutors
struggling financially
and
discourage
many
talented
lawyers from careers
in
public
service.").
3'
See,
e.g.,
Deborah
L.
Rhode,
Legal
Education:
Rethinking
the
Problem,
Reimagining
the
Reforms,
40
PEPP.
L.
REv.
437,
441
(2013)
("Only
about two-
thirds
of
those
who
graduated
from
law school
in
2010 secured full-time
legal
jobs,
and those
who did
and
reported
income
had
a
median
salary
of
$63,000,
which
was
inadequate
to
cover
average
debt
levels.").
272
[Vol.
16.3

THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
protesters-many
of
whom
are
friends
of
mine (or
were),
who
are
as
passionate
about
saving
the
environment
as
I
am.
How
ironic:
to
pay
my bills,
I
have
to
defend
the interests
of
a
client
that
I
find
personally
reprehensible.
This
is
precisely
what
many
attorneys
do
every single
day.
32
But
when
it
comes
to
the
point
where
I
feel
I'm
nothing more
than
a
functionary
and
a
slave
to
my
paycheck,
no
matter how
big
the check,
then
my
work
life
is
a
waste.
This
is
what
I
get
for
making
a
deal
with
the devil.
33
This
is
what many
attorneys
feel
in
their
professional
lives.
Still,
when
a
young
lawyer
realizes that there
is
a
precipitous
opportunity
cost in
the
form
of
losing
a
desired
career
choice
of
lifestyle,
he
will
rationalize his decision
to
take
the
big
firm
job
anyway.
He
can
rationalize
by
saying
he will
work
in
this
job
only
for
a
few
years
to
save
money,
to get
practical experience,
to
make
a
name
for
himself
in
the
profession,
or
until
he
can
pay
down
his
loans. Once
he
has
put
his
time
in,
then
he
is
free to
pursue
his
true
desires.
To put
it
another way, some lawyers
are
willing
to
mortgage
some
short-term
discomfort
now
for
long-term
fulfillment
later-if
it
ever
comes.
Decisions
of
this
type
have
straightforward implications
for
how
new
attorneys approach
their
first
jobs.
If
debt
pushes
32
See,
e.g.,
Joseph
Kanefield,
Defending
the
Defenders,
48
ARIz.
ATT'Y
6
(2011)
("Defending
unpopular
clients
is
what
lawyers
do.");
Laurel
E.
Fletcher,
Alexis Kelly,
&
Zulaikha
Aziz,
Defending
the
Rule
of
Law:
Reconceptualizing
Guantanamo
Habeas
Attorneys,
44
CONN.
L.
REv.
617,
619 (2012)
("The
Guantanamo Lawyers, their
supporters
argued,
were
following
a
time-honored
tradition
of
defending
unpopular
clients.");
David
B.
Wilkins,
Race,
Ethics,
and
the
First
Amendment:
Should
a
Black
Lawyer Represent
the
Ku
Klux
Klan?,
63
GEO.
WASH.
L.
REv. 1030,
1065
(1995)
("Consider,
for
example,
the
organized
bar.
As
I
argued
in
Part
II,
the image
of
the
lonely lawyer
defending
an
unpopular
client's
constitutional
rights
is
an
important professional
trope.
By
constantly invoking
this
example, the
profession
conveys
the
impression
that
ordinary
citizens
can
count
on lawyers
to
defend their most
important
rights.").
33
McMillan,
supra
note
26,
at
101
("The responsibility
for
choosing
the
right
path
rests
squarely
with
each lawyer.
One
comment
on an
ABA
blog
aptly
cuts
to the
heart
of
the
matter,
'I
say
don't
complain
about
the
devil when you
sell
your
soul
to
him."').
2014]
273

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
a
student
to
join
a
particular
law firm,
then
that
student
will
view
work
as
a
short-term
burden
to
bear
until
freed
from
student
loans.
From
the
outset,
therefore,
the
new employee
is
mentally
and
emotionally
disengaged
from
the
new
employer.
This
mindset
will
affect
the new
lawyer's
interactions with
partners,
other associates,
staff,
and
clients.
Knowing
that one
is
not
in
it
for the
long
haul,
it
becomes harder to
invest
and care
about the
cases
and
people
one
encounters.
More primitively,
hired
guns
rarely
show
loyalty.
Here's
an
analogy.
When
people
are
sick,
they
will
undergo
all
manner
of
painful
procedures
to
recover
their
health.
The
long-term
benefits
justify
the
short-term costs.
No
one,
however,
would choose
to
endure
the
pain
if
they
could
reasonably
avoid
it.
But
they
do
so
when
circumstances
dictate
that
it
is
necessary.
For
many
new
lawyers,
the
decision
to
work
at
a
high-paying
firm
flows
from the
same
type
of
calculus.
In
this
conception,
staggering educational
debt
is
to
financial
health
what
a
serious
sickness
is
to
physical health.
The
thinking
goes,
"I
will
endure
the
unhappiness
of
Big
Law
for
just
a
few
years
to
get
my
financial
house
in
order.
Then
I
will
be
free
to
do
what
I
want.
I
will
trade
short-term
pain
for future
gain."
With
this type
of
attitude,
the
disgust
so
many new
lawyers
feel
toward
their
jobs
is
no surprise;
the
choice
was made
to
embrace
misery.
Law
firms
understand this
thinking
well.
As
the
painful nature
of
life
in
Big
Law
has
become
more
publicized
in
the
last
ten
years,
large firm
salaries
have
skyrocketed
to
ensure
that
a
steady stream
of
fresh
law
students will
continue
to
choose short-term
discontent.
The
price
to
endure
unhappiness
has
increased.
It
is
an
indictment
of
the cost structure
of
legal
education
that
so
many
of
our students
feel
the
need
to
pay
such
a
price
in
the
first
instance.
34
4
Id.
at
73-74.
[Vol.
16.3
274

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
V.
GETTING
OUT
OF
THE
RAT
RACE
In
the
premiere
episode
of
the
short-lived situation comedy,
"The
Paul Lynde
Show,"
comedian
and
series
star
Paul Lynde
(playing
an
attorney,
no
less!)
gave
the
perfect
description
of
life
in
the rat
race.
When
his
wife
(played
by
Elizabeth
Allen) asked
him
how
the
rat
race was
going,
he
responded:
"the
rats
are
winning!, 35
Another
very
popular description
of
the
rat
race
says:
"The
problem
with the
rat race
is
that
even
if
you win,
you're
still
a
rat."
36
Then the
problem becomes, what
do
you
win?
Not
much,
evidently.
37 1
know
this
from
my
own
experience
as
I
wasted years
of
my
life
in
a
professional
pursuit that
resulted
in
complete
and
total failure.
This
sentiment,
unfortunately,
is
not
uncommon
in
today's
working
world.
We
often
refer
to
the
workplace
as
"being
in
the
rat
race,"
but
this
is
probably
unfair.
It's
actually
demeaning
to
the
rats.
Rats
won't
stay
in
a
race
when
it's
obvious
there's
no
cheese.
Research
shows
that
even
average
rats
quickly
look
for
new
territory when
the
cheese
is
gone.
Humans,
on
the
other
hand,
seem
to
often
get
themselves
into
career
traps
from
which
they
never
escape.
Some
research
shows
that
up
to
70
percent
of
white-collar workers
are
unhappy
with
their jobs-ironically,
they
are
also
spending
more
and
more
time working.
38
Similar
to
former
United
States
Supreme
Court
Justice
Potter
Stewart's
take
on
what constitutes
pornography
("I know
it
when
I
35
The
Paul
Lynde
Show:
Howie
Comes
Home
to
Roost
(ABC
television
broadcast
Sept.
13,
1972).
36
FRANK
O'NEILL,
NEVER
ENOUGH:
LESSONS
FROM
A
RECOVERING
WORKAHOLIC
131
(iUniversity Press
2010).
31
See,
e.g.,
John Bevere,
Escape
the
Rat
Race,
LIVE
EXTRAORDINARY,
available
at
http://www.charismamag.com/spirit/devotionals/live-
extraordinarily?view-article&id=7910:escape-the-rat-race&catid=674
(last
visited
Mar.
7,
2015).
38
1d.
275

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
see
it"),
39
a
disgruntled,
burned-out
individual
just
knows when
he
has
to
make
a
run for
it.
Sometimes,
one
may
have
to
overcome
obstacles
in
the form
of
disapproving
family
members,
or
even
disapproving
supervisors.
One
attorney
recalled
resigning
from her
high-pressure
job,
along
with her
supervising
partner's
very hostile
response:
On
Sunday
night,
I
wrote
a
letter
giving two
months'
notice.
First
thing
the
next
morning,
I
handed
it
to
one
of
the
partners.
He
was
livid.
Even though
I'd
given
two
months'
notice,
he
told
me to
be out
of
the office
in
two
weeks.
He
also
suggested
that
if
there was anyone whose
opinion
I
valued,
I
should
talk
to them
soon
because
the
rumors
were
going
to
fly.
For
the
next
two weeks
the
guy
tried
to
convince
me
that
I
had
been
fired.
He
told
me
that
my reputation
had
been shot,
and
that
no
one
would
seriously
look
at
me
now.
The
only thing
I
could
possibly
do
was
go
back
to
school
and
start
over.
I
believed
him.
40
We all
have
stories
about
the
boss
from hell,
like
the
above
example,
who
can
really
take
the
joy
out
of
going
to
work
(and
sometimes
take
the
joy
out
of
leaving
for
a
better opportunity).
Luckily,
the
attorney
found
another
job
that
fit
her
interest
and
abilities.
After about
a
year
of
being severely
depressed
and
mostly
unemployed,
I
found
an
announcement
at
Stanford
Law
School
for
director
of
a
new
foundation
in
Palo
Alto.
The
members
of
the
board
wanted
a
lawyer who
could
understand
the
regulations
applying
to
nonprofit
corporations,
yet
someone
new
to
the
field who
would
help
them
shape
their
own
agenda.
It
sounded
like
me.
I
applied
9
Jacobelis
v.
Ohio,
378
U.S.
184,
197
(1964).
40
ARRON,
supra
note
25,
at
99.
276 [Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION: FINDING
YOUR CALLING
and
got
the
job.
I
love
it,
and
don't
regret
leaving
law
at
all.
4'
After
reading this
attorney's
account
of
her
escape,
we
can
only
say
this:
take
that,
partner!
Smith:
Often,
our
passion
comes
disguised
as
something
that
society
(especially parents and
family)
would
not encourage.
An
example
could
be
someone
who
loves working
with
children
but
majored
in
pre-law.
Generally, most
people
would
encourage
that
individual
to
go
to law
school
and
enter
the legal
profession.
The
perception
is
that
lawyers
are
always needed
in
a
society
and
that
people
that
work
well
with
kids
are
somehow
not
as
valuable.
42
"Society has
chosen,
mostly
through
government
policy,
and
sometimes
through
its
market mechanism,
to
maintain teaching
as
a
second-rate
career
that,
more
often
than
not, does
not attract
the
smartest
and
most
ambitious.,
43
Unfortunately,
that
future
attorney might
have made
a
better
K-
5
teacher
or social
worker
who
could help
mold society.
Given
the
priorities
of
society,
the
lawyer
is
somehow prized
more
than
the
teacher.
The
perception
of
the
lawyer's
higher
pay
is
viewed
as
a
badge
of
honor,
while
teaching
or
counseling
is
often
seen as
a
second-tier
career option.
For example:
Consider
lawyers
who
spend insufferable
12-hour
days
pouring
over
mind-numbing,
overly
complex regulation
books
and
legal
codes.
They
earned
$124,750. The
average middle
school
teacher?
A
paltry $52,570.
That's
certainly
no
mark
of
prestige
....
Those
are
today's
societal
images,
I'm
afraid. Smart,
ambitious
people want
society
41
Id.
at
99-100.
42
See,
e.g.,
Forrest
Hinton,
Why Smart,
Ambitious
People
Rarely
Become
Teachers,
THE
QUICK
AND
THE
ED
(Apr.
15,
2010),
available
at
http://www.quickanded.com/201
0/04/why-smart-ambitious-people-rarely-
become-teachers.html.
43
Id.
277

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
to
view
them
as
something
great
and
important,
and
that's
not
a
teacher
in
2010.
44
Moreover, part
of
compensation
is
public
esteem.
When
governors
mock teachers
as
lazy,
avaricious incompetents,
they
demean
the
profession
and make
it
harder
to
attract
the
best
and
brightest.
We
should
be
elevating
teachers,
not
throwing
darts
at
them.
45
Regardless
of
the
perception,
we
know
that being
pigeon-holed
into
any
unfulfilling
line
of
work
due
to
family
influences
or
outside
pressures
is
counterproductive.
It
is
pointless
to
follow
someone
else's
dream
instead
of
running your
own
race.
46
Another former
attorney
described his
escape
from the
legal
rat
race
and
transition
into
teaching
this
way:
I
was
not
willing
to spend
another
25
years doing
something
a
very immature person
of
21-me-had
decided to
do
....
There's
a
limit to the
satisfaction
one
can
earn
making
a
lot
of
money.
I
found
the
world
could
get
along
without
one
more
good
tax lawyer.
But there
are
a
lot
of
kids
out
there
who
might
not
do
so
well
without
a
good
teacher.
47
As
a
result,
many
people
are
leaving
the rat
race
to
forge
their
paths
to
personal satisfaction
and
fulfillment.
"Employees
are
bidding
farewell
to
corporate
America
in
the hope
of
finding
a
more
secure,
or
at
least fulfilling,
future.",
48
Still
another
corporate
44
Id.
4'
Nicholas
D.
Kristof,
Pay
Teachers
More,
N.Y.
TIMES
(Mar.
12,
2011),
available
at
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/opinion/13kristof.html?_r=
1 &.
46
ALLEGRETTI,
supra
note
13,
at
63
("I'll
never
find
my
calling
if
I
follow
your
dreams instead
of
my
own.").
"7
ARRON,
supra
note
25,
at
115.
48
Elizabeth
Alterman,
Employees
Bid
Goodbye
to
Corporate
America,
CNBC
(Aug.
15,
2011,
9:24
AM),
available
at
http://www.cnbc.com/id/42822615.
[Vol.
16.3
278

2014]
THE
JOY OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
escapee
described her transition
from
harried professional
to
personal
contentment
this
way:
Michelle Lawton,
who
spent
two
decades
in
a
successful
career
in
branding
and
marketing,
left
it all
behind
to start
her
own
business,
Joyful
Plate,
seeking
to
strike
a
better
sense
of
balance
in
her
life.
Lawton
decided
to
use
her
savings
to
invest
in
herself.
"I
was
at
a
point
in
my
life
where
I
was
looking
for
a
real
shift,"
Lawton
says.
"I
realized
I
had
a
life
opportunity.
I
had
a
strong network,
and
I'll
be
44
this
year.
This
is
the
time.
I
wanted
to
somehow
give
myself
a
portal
to
use
my talents
to
do
something
that
I'm
really passionate
about. But
also,
from
a
strategic
standpoint,
I
wanted
to
figure
out
an
infrastructure
that
would
allow
me
to
pave my
own way
moving
forward."
Lawton
notes
when
she was
in
the
corporate
world working
for
companies
like
Procter
&
Gamble,
Pepperidge
Farm,
Lavazza
Coffee and
Remy
Cointreau,
she
was compensated very well
but
still
not
nearly
enough
considering
the
hours
she
was
putting
in.
"It's
so
hard
to
find
a
happy
medium,"
says
Lawton.
"The stress
level
is
so
high,
you
indulge
in
unhealthy
ways
to
compensate,
emotionally
treating
yourself,
whether
it's
overeating
or
overdrinking
or
overspending."
As
her
own
boss,
Lawton
makes
time
for
things
she
never
could
during her
years
in
the
business world,
such as
lunchtime yoga
and
pilates
classes.
"It's
something
I
can't
quantify,"
explains Lawton.
"I've
never
been
healthier.
What
I'm
not gaining
in
financial
rewards,
I've
gained
in
personal
well-being.
It
sounds like
a
clich6,
but
it's
a
trade-off. 49
Obviously,
there cannot
be much
good
in
working
sweatshop
hours
every
week, making
a
ton
of
money,
if
one
is
too
stressed
out
to
enjoy
spending
it.
It
is
even
more
pointless
to
work
sweatshop
hours
and
not
make
much
money.
49
Id.
279

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
Gilmore:
In
my
own
working
life,
I
was
working ridiculous
hours,
dealing
with
stress, and,
to
add
injury
to
insult,
I
was not
making
as
much
money
as
I
should have
(compared
to
similarly
situated
accountants).
When
my
opportunity for
escape
came
in
the
form
of
my
getting accepted
to
law school,
I
too
made
a
run
for
it
and never
looked
back.
VI.
HEARING
THE
CALL
Whether
one
lucks
into
it
(like
we
did) or
one
follows
a
meticulous plan,
the
truth
is
that
anyone
can
find
a
calling
for
his
career.
Finding
the
call
for
one's
career
is
by
no
means
easy,
no
matter
the
route
taken,
and
it
may
take years
of
failure
(as
in
Gilmore's
case)
before
finally
hitting
one's
stride.
"As
you
search
for
your
calling, there
may
be
years
of
false starts, lost
opportunities,
and
embarrassing
failures.
Most
of
us
will
change
jobs
lots
of
times.
Each
change
may
be
a
step along
the
way
to
our
calling.
The
virtues
of
patience
and
hope
are
indispensable.
50
But,
when
one
has found
his
true
calling,
and
knows beyond
all
doubt
that
this is
what
he is
meant
to
do,
we
can
definitely
say
that
it
is
a
true
joy
knowing
that
his
work
does
matter.
Again,
it
does
not
matter
what
line
of
work
one
pursues.
If
he
knows
in
his
heart
that his
efforts
are
not
in
vain,
but
are
actually
beneficial,
he
is
probably
in
the
right
place.
Although
one
might expect
to
find
a
higher
number
of
Callings
among
those
in
certain
occupations, for
example,
teachers
and
Peace
Corps
employees, it
is
plausible
that
salespersons, medical technicians,
factory
workers,
and
secretaries
could
view
their work
as a
Calling.
Such
people
could
love
their work
and
think that
it
contributes
to
making
the
world
a
better
place.
5'
50
ALLEGRETrr,
supra
note
13,
at
64.
51
Wrzesniewski
et
al.,
supra
note
4,
at
22.
280
[Vol.
16.3

THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
VII.
TWO
MISFITS'
(OUR)
REAL-LIFE
EXPERIENCES
WITH
THE
REALITIES
OF
WORK
"Mine
isn't
a
string
of
victories.
It's
no
golden
past.
"52
A.
Gilmore
and
the
Rat
Race-Gilmore
Lost
...
Badly!
Gilmore:
I
was
an
accountant
in
my
earlier
professional
life,
and the
above
quote
perfectly
sums
up
my
time
in
the
profession.
With
the
now
twenty
years
of
hindsight
since
leaving
the
profession,
I
can
honestly
say that my
accounting
"career"
(and
I
use the
term
very
loosely here)
was
an
embarrassing
joke
at
best
and
a
spectacular
failure
at
worst.
I
will
not
bore
anyone with
the
details
here,
but
suffice
to
say
that
I
made some
early
career
choices that
I
would
love
to
have back,
and
those
bad
early
choices
set
the
stage
for
ten
years
of
career
failure.
Ultimately,
I
lost
a
decade
of
my
life
in
an
unfulfilling
career
with
absolutely
zero
to
show for
it.
Ironically,
I
enjoyed my
accounting
courses when
I
was
an
undergraduate
student. During
my
time
as
an
accounting
major,
I
had
several
professors
tell
me
that
the
sky
was
the
limit
once
I
pursued
an
accounting
career.
I
wanted
to
pursue
a
career doing
tax
work
in
a
CPA
firm,
and
my
finest
hour
as
an
undergraduate
was
my scoring
an
A
in
Federal
Income Tax
in
my senior
year.
So
what
happened?
Unfortunately,
I
just
could
not make
the
transition
from
academic
promise
to
professional
success.
In
addition,
I
had
neither
the
maturity
nor
the
wisdom
to
understand
that
starting
a
career
right
out
of
college
was
a
painstaking,
meticulous
undertaking
and
that
rejection
was
part
of
the
process.
"It's
funny
how
things shift
after
graduating
college.
Your
first
jobs
are
never
quite
as
you
imagined
them,
and
often
52
George
Peppard-
Biography,
IMDB,
http://www.imdb.com/search-
bio/peppard
(last
visited
Mar.
7,
2015).
2014]

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
times you
feel
a
sense
of
disappointment.
53
After graduation,
I
just
knew
that
I
would
hit
the
ground running
and
success was
mine
for
the
taking. Thus,
I
took
my
shiny
new
bachelor's
degree
in
accounting and
went
off
to
set
the
world
on fire
...
or
so
I
thought.
Man, was
I
wrong!
I
could
not
set
the
world
on
fire until
I
got
a
job.
The trouble
was,
I
could
not
score
an
accounting
job
to
save
my
life.
As
my
insecurity
got
worse with
each
passing
day-and
every
rejection
letter-all
of
my close
friends
were
receiving
job
offers
left
and
right.
Their only trouble
was
deciding
which
offer
they
should
accept.
This
only
aggravated
my
crisis
in
self-confidence
as
my
friends
were
getting
offers
from
top
corporations, CPA firms,
and
other
reputable
organizations,
and
all
I
was
getting
was
one
rejection
letter
after
another after
another
after another.
The
worst
blow
I
got
was
after
I
had gone
on
an
interview
with
a
CPA
firm
on
a
Friday
morning,
and
the
managing partner
was
quite
impressed with
me.
So
when
he
called
me
the
following Monday
morning,
at
8am,
I
thought
surely
he
was
calling
me
with
an
offer.
I
was
even
stupid
enough
to
think
that
he
wanted
me to
start
later that
day.
Instead,
he
called me
at
that
time
of
the
morning
to
tell
me
that
he
and
his
partner
decided
to hire
someone
else.
That
incident
completely
vaporized
what
little
confidence
I
might
have had
left
for
a
very
long
time.
Nearly
six
months
after
graduating,
I
finally
got
a
job
offer
from
the
New
York City
Department
of
Finance
to
audit
business
tax returns.
By
then,
I
was
so
demoralized
by
my
first
job
search
that
I
was
absolutely floored
that
I
finally
got
an
offer.
I
really
did
not
celebrate
all
that
much;
I
was that stunned
that
somebody
actually
said
yes!
Anyway,
I
always wanted
to
do
tax
work,
this
was
a
tax
job,
and
I
figured
that
this
would
be
a
great
opportunity
to
attain
some
valuable
experience
and
possibly
learn
tax
preparation
on
my
way
to the
top
of
the
tax field.
53
Nicole
Emerick,
How I
Left
Corporate
America
at
26
to
do
What
I
Love,
Ms.
CAREER
GIRL
(Mar.
29,
2011),
http://www.mscareergirl.com/2011/03/29/how-i-
left-corporate-america-at-26-to-do-what-i-love/.
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY OF PASSION: FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
Wrong
again!
In
my
job
of
auditing
business tax
returns,
all
I
did
was
check
for
discrepancies
in
each
return
that
might
have
resulted
in
additional
tax
assessments.
I
was
not
learning
how
to
prepare
tax
returns,
since
all
I
did
was
merely
check
up
on
what
someone
else
did.
I
was
much
less
a
tax auditor than
I
was
a
clerk.
Frankly,
I
really
could not
have
an
intelligent conversation
about
taxes
with
any
knowledgeable
practitioner
because
I
was
hopelessly
behind
the curve and
only
falling
further behind.
My
job
was
pretty
mindless
as
there
was
nothing
for
me
to
analyze
and
there was
certainly
no
room
in
that
clerical
job
for
any
professional
and
intellectual
growth.
I
was
already
starting
to
suffer
from
intellectual atrophy.
In
the
meantime,
my friends
were
learning
more
and
more, and
they
were
getting
some
very
lucrative
promotions
as
they went
on.
Things deteriorated
to
the
point
where
I
was
truly
embarrassed
to
say
what
I
did
for
a
living and where
I
worked.
To
quote
WFAN
radio's
Joe
Benigno:
"OH
THE
PAIN!
,,54
After
two
mind-numbing
years,
I
left the
Department
of
Finance
to
take
a
job
in
a
corporate
accounting department.
If
my
first
job
was
completely
stultifying
at
the
one
extreme, my
next
job
was
non-stop
pressure
at
the
other
extreme.
In
my
first corporate
job,
I
did
get
the
opportunity
to
prepare
income tax
returns,
sales
tax
returns,
property
tax
returns,
financial statements,
and
bank
reconciliations. However,
this
was
a
job
where
the
corporate
culture
was
all
about
fear.
I
had
a
couple
of
supervisors
who
inspired
terror
as
soon
as
they walked
into
the
office.
I
admit,
I
had
plenty
of
days
on
this
job
where
I
was
scared
to
make
a
mistake.
There
were
even some
colleagues
I
was
afraid
to
look
in
the eyes.
Sadly, this
kind
of
workplace
experience
is
not
exactly
54
JOE
BENIGNO
&
JORDAN RAANAN,
RULES
FOR
NEW
YORK
SPORTS FANS
xiii
(Triumph Books
2010)
(Joe
Benigno
uses
that
line
quite
often
when
he
speaks
of
the
perpetual
ineptitude
of
his
beloved
New
York Jets,
New
York
Mets,
and
New York
Knicks)
(emphasis added).
See
generally
Joe
Benigno,
CBS
NEW
YORK,
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/personality/joe-benigno/
(last
visited
Mar.
7,2015).
283

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
unprecedented.
For example,
Touro
Law
professor
Suzanne
Darrow-Kleinhaus
recalls
a
similar
workplace horror:
Unfortunately,
in
my
prior
work
experience,
I
had
worked
for
a
company
where
every
word
and
facial
expression
was
scrutinized
and
criticized.
The
management
style
was
to
create
an
atmosphere
of
fear and
terror.
Every
action
of
the
employee
was
controlled
and
analyzed
so
that
it
had
come
to
the
point
where
I
no
longer
had
any
confidence
in
my
ability
to
think
for
myself.
I
worried endlessly
over
every
little
thing
and
I
no
longer
felt
competent
to
choose
even
the
type
of
copy
paper
to
use
for
a
particular
manual.
This
was
precisely
the
effect
my
manager had
sought
to
achieve.
Well,
it
might
have
been
her
goal but
it
was
certainly
not
mine.
So
I
found
another
job
but
it
took
months
before
I
recovered my feelings
of
self-worth
and
competence.
Despite
my horrible experience,
I
learned
a
valuable lesson:
I
would
never
again
work
for
an
employer
that
required
complete
domination
and control over
its
employees.
55
No
matter
what
I
(or
anyone
else)
did
in
this
particular place,
someone was
always
looking
to
take
your
head
off
whether
you
deserved
it
or
not.
There
is
nothing
worse
than being
in
a
work
environment
where
a
gun
is
(figuratively)
pointed
at
your
head
every
single day.
I
cannot
work under
that
kind
of
pressure,
and
I
refuse
to
ever
again.
As
I
saw
it,
this
was
an
employer
who would
not
let
a
little thing
like
common decency
get
in
the
way
of
turning
a
profit.
56
The
last straw
for
me
was
when
I
was
out
sick
for much
of
the
week with
a
bad
case
of
the
flu.
From
Monday through
Wednesday,
I
was
getting
an
incessant
string
of
phone
calls
at
home
from
one
supervisor after
another.
Still
sick, and
against
my
better
judgment,
I
dragged
myself
into
work
on
Thursday
morning.
55
Suzanne
Darrow-Kleinhaus,
Developing
Professional
Identity
Through
Reflective
Practice,
28
TouRo
L.
REv.
1443, 1454
(2012).
56
THE
GODFATHER
(Paramount
1972)
("I
got
a
business
to
run.
I
gotta
kick
asses
sometimes
to
make
it
run
right.").
284
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
285
Almost
immediately,
the
controller
started
cross-examining
me
about
a
tax
return
I
had
filed.
When
he
didn't
like
my
answer
to
one
of
his
questions,
he
yelled
at
me,
in
front
of
the
whole
office,
"You're
a goddamned
idiot!"
In
retrospect,
if
I
had any
guts,
I
would
have
(and
should
have)
told
him
where
he
could
go
and
resigned
on
the spot.
Unfortunately,
my
cowardice
and
my
final
year
of
car
payments
did
not
make this
a
viable
option.
So
I
kept
swallowing
both
the abuse
and
my
pride.
57
Luckily,
less
than
a
month
later,
I
was
blessed
with
an
escape.
In
keeping with
the
premise
of
"take this
job
and
shove
it,"
I
was
able to
get
a
job
offer for
my
third
(and
final)
accounting
job.
I
went
into
the
office
extra early
to
write
my
letter
of
resignation.
That
day,
for
obvious reasons,
I
was
not
afraid
of
getting
fired.
I
was
almost finished writing
my
resignation
(don't
worry-I
kept
it
professional) when
the
assistant controller
came
into the
office,
looked
over
my
shoulder,
and asked
me
what
I
was doing.
I
looked
at
him
with
a
big
smile
on
my
face
and
told
him
I
will
show
him
my finished
product
in
ten
minutes.
I
told
the
assistant
controller,
the
controller,
and
the
chief
financial
officer
(in
a
nice
way-much
more
than
they
deserved) that
I
am
escaping
this godforsaken
place. Good
riddance!
That
should have
been
the end
of
it.
Even
after
I
had left
the
firm,
the
assistant
controller
called my house
a
couple
of
more
times
to
ask
some
extra questions,
and my
dad
came
to
the
rescue.
My
dad
really
ripped
into
the assistant controller, telling
him
to
leave me
"the
hell
alone," and
called
him
out
on
how
he
and
his
cronies
never
appreciated me
while
I
worked
for
them,
and
all
but
threw
me
out
the door when
I
left.
My
dad
then
spoke
to the
controller
and
laid
him
out, too.
I
wish
I
had
been home when
my
dad
"smoked"
them both.
Thanks,
Dad.
There
you
have
it.
In
my
first
four
short years
in
the
accounting
profession,
I
had
already
run
the
gamut
of
my professional identity
from
extreme apathy
to
extreme
fear.
Consequently,
in
those
first
17
Bevere,
supra
note
37
("Each
week
I
talk
to
individuals
who
feel
trapped
in
their
current
work.
They
talk about being demeaned,
belittled
and
emotionally
abused. And
yet
they
stay,
hoping
against
all
odds
that
things
will
magically
improve.").

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
two
jobs,
I
dreaded
going
to
work.
The
dread
would
set
in
at
approximately
five
o'clock
p.m.
every
Sunday
afternoon.
Then
the
career failure
would
start
all
over again
on
Monday.
My
last
accounting
job
was
pretty
decent,
for the
most
part.
By
then,
however,
I
knew
that
I
was
never
really
going
to
go
far
in my
chosen
profession. For
whatever
the
reason, my
"chosen"
profession
somehow
did
not
choose me.
For
years,
I
thought
that
professional
life
had
to
be
a
lot
better
than where
I
ended
up,
and
that
I
had
been
sold
a
bill
of
goods about how
great
being
an
accountant
was.
Frankly,
I
had
been
taken.
Don't
get
me
wrong,
I
am
not looking
to
blast
the
accounting
profession
all
these years
later;
I
have
no
axe
to
grind.
Interestingly,
just
like
the
legal
profession,
the
accounting
profession
seems
to
have
its
own issues
with
career
satisfaction
and work-life
balance.
5 8
Still,
a
lot
of
my
friends
are
successful,
happy
accountants
to
this
day,
as
are
many
of
my
former
students.
This
career
choice
just
did
not
work
out
for
me.
B.
From Corporate
Flunky
to
Law
School
Gilmore:
In
the
summer
of
1995,
I
finally
left
the accounting
profession
to
go
to
law
school.
I
had already
heard the zillion
alleged
horror
stories about
law school,
but
I
always
took
them
with
a
grain
of
salt.
I
always
wanted
to
go
to
law school and
in
58
See,
e.g.,
Beecher Tuttle,
Big
Four
Accountants
Have
Prestige,
Not
Quality
of
Life,
Survey Says,
E-FINANCIAL
CAREERS
(Apr.
17,
2013),
http://news.efinancialcareers.com/139113/big-four-accountants-have-prestige-
not-quality-of-life-survey-says/;
Mark
Kolokowski,
Public
Accounting
Firms,
ABOUT.COM,
http://financecareers.about.com/od/publicaccountingfirms/a/pubacctg.htm
(last
visited
Mar.
7,
2015)
("Major
public
accounting
firms
have
issues with
employee
burnout.
Partners
have
a
direct economic incentive
to maximize
employees' billable hours.
While
the
Big
4
firms
today
trumpet
their
employee
retention
policies, they
have
histories
of
high
staff
turnover, partly
due
to
treating
staff
as
disposable."); Tamara Holmes,
Burnout
Beware,
INSIGHT
MAGAZINE,
http://www.icpas.org/hc-insight.aspx?id=1054
(last
visited
Mar.
7,
2015).
[Vol.
16.3
286

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
light
of
my
then
recent
professional
failure,
I
laughed
at
the
rumors
of
intimidating professors,
59
end
of
semester,
one-shot-only
exams,
6
0
and
allegedly
dog-eat-dog
student competition.
61
Consequently,
I
had
a
blast
in
law school.
For
me,
law
school
was
three
of
the
best
years
of
my
life.
Admittedly,
law school
gave
me
the escape
from
my
joyless,
demoralizing,
psychologically-
debilitating professional
existence,
but
I
still
had
to
perform
and
succeed
in
law
school
once
I
got
there.
Law
school
is
no
place
for
the
truly
stupid.
Once
I
got
to
law
school,
I
had
fun all
the
way
through.
Compared
to the
disaster
of
my
earlier
professional
life,
I
found
law
school
to
be
quite calm,
relatively speaking.
I
did
not
19
See
generally
James
J.
White,
Maiming
the Cubs,
32 OHIo
N.U.
L.
REv.
287,
303
(2006)
("Assuming
for
the
sake
of
the
argument that
law school causes
anxiety and depression
in
students,
I
am
not
persuaded either that that anxiety
and
its
associated psychological
ills
persist
after
law
school or
that
they
can
be
prevented
by
even
Herculean
efforts
at
making
law
school
more humane.
Until
better
data
come
forward,
I
will
continue the traditional law
teacher's
reign
of
pillage
and abuse.
I
do
that
happy
in
the
belief
that
my
hectoring
will
leave
my
students
better,
if
momentarily
sicker,
lawyers.").
See
also
THE
PAPER CHASE
(Twentieth Century
Fox
1973).
60
Andrew
Jay
McClurg,
Law
Stories:
One
L
Revisited
-
Neurotic,
Paranoid
Wimps
-
Nothing
Has
Changed,
78
UMKC
L.
REv.
1049,
1050
(2010)
("[A]nd
the
fate
of
most students
still
rests
on
a
single make-it-or break-it exam.").
See
also
GARY
A.
MUNNEKE,
How
To
SUCCEED
IN
LAW
SCHOOL
18
(4th
ed. 2008)
("As
a
rule
law school exams
average
one
hour
of
exam
for each
credit hour
of
class,
and
in
many cases
count
for
100%
of
your
course
grade
(one
exam-all
the
marbles!)").
61
Rebecca
Flanagan,
Lucifer
Goes
to
Law
School:
Towards
Explaining
and
Minimizing
Law
Student
Peer-to-Peer
Harassment
and
Intimidation,
47
WASHBURN
L.J.
453,
460
(2008)
("The
rapid
pace
of
law school
instruction
and
the
intense
pressure
of
ten-hour
days,
often
spent
in
the
company
of
a
limited
number
of
peers,
accelerate
the
socialization
process
among
law
students.
The
breakneck law
school
day
allows changes
in
thinking
to take
place
in
a
short
time
that would
normally
take
months
to
evolve. While this
transformation
is
necessary to
succeed
on
exams,
it
has
considerable
negative effects
on
the
interpersonal
relationships
of
law
students. Because
of
the
intense
competition
for
grades
and
subsequent
summer clerkships, students become
distrustful
of
their
peers.
It
is
not
unusual
for
students
to
question
the
motives
of
peers
they
would otherwise
call
friends.").
287

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
have
to
get up
before sunrise
every
single
day, and
I
could
actually
get
home
at
a
decent
hour
in
the
afternoon.
For
my
entire
time
in
law
school,
the
earliest
weekday
class
I
ever
had
started
at
10
a.m.,
which
is
far
better
than
having
to
be
in
an
office
by
8
a.m.
Needless
to
say,
I
quickly
got
used
to
the
relaxed
lifestyle
of
getting
up
later
in
the day
and
doing
everything
I
needed
to
do.
With
my
new,
low-stress
lifestyle,
I
decided
quickly
that
I
was
never
going
to
practice law
and
take
on
sixty-
to
ninety-hour
workweeks.
I
had already
done that
once
in
my
life.
To
do
it again
in law
practice
would have
been
a
step
down
and,
most
likely,
would
have
defeated
the
purpose
of
my
going
to
law
school
in
the
first
place.
That
brought
me
to the
question
of
what
kind
of
job
I
could
get
with
a
similar
lifestyle once
I
finished
law school.
Although
it
took
a
little
while
to
convince
myself
that
I
could
do
it,
I
decided that
going
into
academia could
be
a
viable
career
option.
I
had
always
entertained
the
vague
idea
that
I
could
be
a
college
professor
somewhere.
I
knew that
a
law
degree
could open
the
door
for
me
to
make
that
idea
a
reality.
The more
I
thought
about
it,
the
better
it
looked.
For
all
my
professional
travails,
I
realized
that
I
could
teach
college-level
tax
courses
with
a
law degree
and my
experience
as a
tax
practitioner.
I
also
knew
that
a
law
degree
would
give me the
necessary
credibility
to
teach
business
law. As
I
started
to
put
all
this
together,
my
next
career
path
was
coming
into
sharper focus.
Not
only
that,
I
could
actually
see
myself
doing
the
same
thing
as
those
professors
who
I
admired and
had
the good
fortune
to
take
classes
with.
But
the goal
of
teaching
was
still
lurking-especially
after
I
was
inspired
by
several
tremendous
professors
during
college.
I
decided
that
after
college
I
would
go
to
graduate
school
to
pursue
a
master's
degree
in
education.
I
knew
I
wanted
to
be
a
teacher for
many
reasons.
First,
I
love
being
in
a
school
environment.
Second,
as
I
mentioned
earlier,
I
love
learning.
I
enjoy having
my
mind
opened
to new
ideas.
Finally,
I
love
connecting with
others,
and
just
being
288
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION: FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
around
other
smart
people.
I
thought
that
teaching would
be
a
great
way
to
continue doing this.
62
C.
From
High
School
Dropout
to
College
Professor
1.
Escape
from
High School
Gilmore:
I
cannot
say
that
I
took
the
most
direct
route
to
a
teaching
career.
Nor
could
I
ever
envision
that
someone who
hated
academic
life
in
high
school
as
much
as
I
did
would
ever
find
a
rewarding career
as
an
academician.
But that
is
exactly what
happened.
Before that,
I
was
a
high
school
dropout.
I
hated
high
school-it
was
brutal-and
it
was
an
experience
that
I
would
not
wish
on
my worst
enemy.
One
certainly cannot
be
passionate
about
learning
if
the academic
environment
is
that
of
antipathy
and
intimidation. That
was
my
high
school
experience.
I
went
to
a
specialized
high
school,
and
that
turned
out
to
be
one
of
the biggest mistakes
of
my
life.
I
had
to
take
courses
there
that
had
absolutely
no
relevance
in
the
real
world.
They
consisted
of
subject
matters that,
to
this
day,
have
never
helped
me
in
real
life,
whether
I
chose
to
be
an
attorney,
an
accountant,
a
college
professor,
a
cab
driver,
a
gravedigger,
a
cosmetologist,
or anything
else.
This
was the
direct
result
of
being
automatically programmed
to
take
these
useless
courses
instead
of
being
able
to
take
something worthwhile
that
would
help
me
in
the
real
world.
I
went
through
the
horror
of
sitting
in
class
after
class, day after
day,
with
no
conceivable hope
of
ever
having
anything
positive
happen.
In
addition
was the
fact
that
the
administration
there
at
the
time
could
not
have cared
less
about students
like
me
who
sorely
needed
some
positive
reinforcement
(because
it fell
all
over
itself
catering
to the
honor
students).
62
See,
e.g.,
Thomas
W.
Holm,
A
Journey
of
Faith,
Love,
and
Teaching,
58
UCLA
L. REv.
Disc.
215, 216
(2011).
289

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
My
old high school
is
an
institution
with
a
national reputation
for
its
programs
in
upper-level
science, math, and
engineering-
none
of
which
I
had
any aptitude
for.
Yet,
the
people
there never
gave
me
so
much
as a
pat
on
the
back
if
I
happened
to
do
well
at
something.
But
they
were
always
quick
to
castigate
me
if
I
came
up
short
at
anything.
I
really
could
not enjoy learning
for
its own
sake;
I
always
had the
feeling
that
I
had
to
somehow
get
through
one
class,
only to defend
myself
against
the
next
one.
Similar to
the
experience
in
the
corporate
world,
one cannot
enjoy
an
academic
experience,
or
be
ultimately
successful
with
it,
if
the
overall
environment
is
one
of
fear
and
hostility.
Sadly,
my
old
high school
environment
was anything but
nurturing
and
student-friendly,
and
eventually
killed
my
desire
to
work
through
it.
"Nobody
wants to
work
in
a
hostile
environment.
None
of
us
can
do
our
best
if
we
work
in
constant
fear
of
being criticized
or
yelled
at
for the
smallest
mistake."
63
This sentiment
is
just
as
true
in
academia
as
it
is
in
the
workplace.
To
this
day,
I
recall
two
incidents
from
high
school
where
an
overbearing
teacher's hostility
ruined my
desire
for
improvement
and
passion
for
learning.
In
my
freshman
year,
I
had
taken
a
required technical
drafting
class. One otherwise
ordinary
day,
at
the
end
of
class, we
turned
in
our assignments
and
prepared
to
leave
for our
next
class. Out
of
the
blue,
the
teacher's
voice
boomed
out
of
nowhere:
"What
kind
of
crap
is
this?
You've
got
to
be
kidding, Gilmore!"
Thanks
a
lot.
Instead
of
taking
the
time
to
explain
what
I
did
wrong,
this man
went
out
of
his
way
to
embarrass
the
hell
out
of
me,
and
all
but
wrote me
off
in
his
class
(and
for
what?).
Just
because
I
(a
lowly
fourteen-year-old
freshman)
had no
ability
as a
future
architect
(I
already
knew
this).
Needless
to
say
(but
I
will),
I
just
wanted
to get
out
of
his
class
with
a
passing
grade
and
be
done
with him.
It
did
not
matter
if
I
scored
an
A
or
a
D-it
was
all
the
same
to
me.
Thankfully,
I
did
pass
his
class and
I
never
saw
him
again.
The other indelible
incident
happened
in
my
junior
year.
Another
teacher
was
ripping
mercilessly
into
this
poor
kid
solely
63
ALLEGRETTI,
supra
note
13,
at
121.
[Vol.
16.3
290

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
291
because he
forgot
to
bring
his
engineering notebook
with a
special
type
of
graph
paper
(called
"quadrille")
to
class.
The
teacher
verbally
undressed
this
poor
kid
for
approximately
fifteen
minutes
and
never
came up
for
air.
I
admired
my
classmate's
restraint
and
stoicism
in
taking
the
abuse.
Had
it
been
me,
I
would
have
walked
out
of
that
class
and taken my
F.
I
still
shake
my head
at
that
incident.
"Freakin' quadrille
graph
paper!"
There
are
those who
would
argue that so-called "tough
love"
is
not
entirely
a
bad
thing.
I
would
agree
with
that sentiment,
but
only
up
to
a
point.
I
understand
as
well
as
anyone
that there
are
specific
academic
and
professional standards that
a
student
or
practitioner
must
satisfy
in
order to
be
successful.
Still,
in
my humble opinion, there
is
a
thin
line
separating
tough
love
from
outright
abuse.
If
the
desired effect
is
to
toughen
someone
up
mentally
for
certain
hardships
one
will
face
later
in
the
workplace,
and
life
in
general,
then tough
love
certainly
has
its
place.
However,
when
the
allegedly
constructive criticism
serves
only
to
humiliate
and
debase
its
intended target,
and
results
in
the
recipient
turning
his
back
on
any
potential
benefits
the
situation
might
otherwise
have
to
offer,
especially
when
the so-called
"critic"
constantly harps
on
the
other
person's
supposed
ineptitude-then
it is
just
pointless.
64
In
fact,
I
had
initially
decided
not
to
go
to
college because
I
was
that
traumatized
by
high school, and
I
thought
college
was
just
more
of
the
same
(thank God
it
was
not).
Still,
I
cannot
help
but
believe
that
there
are
situations
where
a
student's
hopes
and
desires
were
at
least severely
damaged
(if
not
permanently
snuffed
out)
because
of
a
bad
incident
or
bad
relationship with
an
adversarial,
hostile teacher.
I
imagine
that
a
psychologically
and
emotionally
defenseless child would
be
TERRORIZED
by
even
the
64
See,
e.g.,
Laura
McCallister
&
Stephen
Mayer.
Student,
Allegedly
Bullied
by
Teacher,
Tries
to
Stop
Future
Cases
ofAbuse,
KCTV5
(June
27, 2013),
http://www.kctv5.com/story/2270939 1/student-allegedly-bullied-by-teacher-
tries-to-stop-future-cases-of-abuse
("She
told
me
I
would never
amount
to
anything.").

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
thought
of
that
sort
of
public
display
and
humiliation.
You
can
imagine
the
damage
done
should
the
child
actually
be
forced,
by
the
teacher,
to
submit
to
the
public
humiliation.
Self-esteem
would
take a
hit,
their
social
network
would
probably
crumble, and the effects
would
no
doubt
trickle
out
into
the
schoolyard
in
ways to
[sic]
innumerable
to
enumerate
in
this
short article.
Schools have
a
hard enough
time
dealing with
bullying
to
begin
with
without
teachers
painting
a
target
on
a
child's
back
in
this fashion.
65
Consequently,
the
constant browbeating,
undermining
of
confidence,
and
overall
negative reinforcement finally
caused
me
to
lose
all
incentive
to
continue,
and
I
finally
dropped
out
early
in
my
fourth
year.
I
decided
that
it was
pointless
for
me
to
continue
to
attend classes
only to have
the
usually
hard-hearted
teachers
yell
at
me for
trivial,
really
stupid reasons
(along
with
their
1950's
mentality
of
"learn
this subject
...
or
else!").
And
I
was
never
going to
learn
anything useful
or
pass anything anyway.
I
really
believe
that
I
would
have
had
a
much
better
experience
if
somebody-anybody-would
have
taken
the time to
explain
how
most
of
these
courses
were
relevant
to
everyday
life.
Thus,
my
spirit was
completely
broken
in
that
place and
I
have
not been
back
since.
As
the great
Steely
Dan
song
once
observed,
"and
I'm
never
going
back
[t]o
my
old
school.
66
Even law
students
voiced
similar
concerns
about
the
effect
of
a
professor's
lack
of
humanity
and
common decency
on the learning
process.
Although
the
importance
of
teacher
friendliness
may
be
obvious,
many students made
it
clear how
detrimental
to
65
See,
e.g.,
Dr.
Michael
Sosteric,
The
Emotional
Abuse
of
Our
Children:
Teachers, Schools,
and
the
Sanctioned
Violence
of
Our
Modern
Institutions,
THE SocJouRNAL
(Mar.
2,
2012),
http://www.sociology.org/featured/the-
emotional-abuse-of-our-children-teachers-schools-and-the-sanctioned-violence-
of-our-modem-institutions.
66
STEELY
DAN,
MY
OLD
SCHOOL,
on
COUNTDOWN
TO
ECSTASY
(ABC
Records
1973).
[Vol.
16.3
292

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
learning
it
can
be
when
their
teachers
are
not
friendly.
Several
students
warned
that
teachers should
not
be
"intimidating,"
"hostile," or
"unfriendly
and
aloof."
Another
student
said:
"A
stiff,
cold,
unapproachable
personality
makes
someone
an
ineffective
teacher."
Yet
another
said:
"Poor
social
skills
inhibit
learning
in
an
interactive classroom."
Finally,
a
part-time UNLV
student
said
that
"when
the
[professor]
is
unapproachable
and
barely
human,
the class
is
truly
brutal."
67
After my
high
school
horror,
I
really enjoyed academic
life
in
college,
graduate
school, and law
school.
This
is
because
I
had
the
freedom to
pursue
a
course
of
study
in
accordance
with
my
interest
and
ability.
I
was
also
allowed
to
successfully progress
at
my
own
pace
without needless interference
from
the
academic
bureaucracy.
It
was
especially
crucial for
me
to have
this
kind
of
academic
flexibility
after
my
spirit-crushing
experience
in
high
school.
This
in
turn
brought
me
academic success,
which
eventually brought
me
to
a
successful
career
in
academia
(of
all
places).
2.
The
Decision
to
Go Into
Teaching
Gilmore:
As
I
mentioned,
academic
life
was
quite
rewarding
after
escaping
high school,
and my
time
in
law
school
caused
me
to
think
about the
possibility
of
a
career
in
academia. How
did
I
know
I
could
really
teach?
I
would
not
know until
I
actually
did
it.
As
any
professor
can
attest,
teaching
is
really
nothing
more than
taking
a
subject
matter
and
being
able
to
deliver
it
in
laymen's
terms where
it
makes
practical
sense
to
the
students.
My
professional
station
in
life
today
comes
directly
from
my
great time
in
law school.
Law
school allowed
me
to
become
a
big,
fat,
happy
kid
again.
This
was
the
identity that
was
ripped
away
67
James
B.
Levy,
As
a
Last
Resort,
Ask
the
Students:
What
they
Say
Makes
Someone
an
Effective Law
Teacher,
58
ME.
L.
REV.
49,
86
(2006).
293

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
from
me
during
my
angst-ridden
accounting
days.
Law
school
also
gave
me
the
confidence to
speak
in
front
of
an
audience.
It
was
this
newfound
confidence
that
led
to
the
one
incident
that
confirmed
the
belief
that
I
could
be
a
competent
college
professor.
In
my
second-year criminal procedure
class,
we
had
an
exercise
in
which
we were
to make oral
arguments
before
a
mock
appellate court. The
assignment
was
an
evidence suppression
hearing,
and
I
argued for the
defendant
who was
accused
of
murder. My
professor
said
that
I
didn't
need
to
put
on
a
suit
(I
certainly
would
have
if
he'd
said
otherwise).
So
I
showed
up
for
the
oral
argument wearing
my
New
York
Yankees baseball
cap,
loud
Bermuda
shorts,
a
golf
shirt,
and
I
hadn't
shaved
in
about
two
weeks.
I
looked every
bit
the
thirty-three-year
old,
burned-out,
corporate escapee,
ex-accountant
that
I
was.
My
opponent
was ten
years
younger
than
me,
fresh
out
of
college, and
was
barely
old
enough to
shave.
Naturally,
he
showed
up
wearing
a
freshly pressed
suit,
looking
every
bit
like
Atticus
Finch.
68
At
the
risk
of
sounding
immodest,
I
thoroughly
destroyed
him. While
my
opponent was
rifling
through
his
script
every
time
the
judges
(selected
classmates
and my
professor)
asked him
a
question,
I
was
firing
back
point-blank
answers
off
the
top
of
my
head,
with
no
script.
I
learned
later
that
the
judges
unanimously
ruled
in
my
favor,
both
in
terms
of
the
legal
analysis
and
my
stage
presence.
From
the
professor
on
down, everyone
in
my
class
gave
me
rave
reviews
on
my
performance.
In
addition,
the
talk
around
the
school
for
the
next
few
days
was
how
Gilmore,
disguised
as
a
ratty
looking
bum,
completely
undressed
and
outclassed
the
up-
and-coming
hot-shot
face-to-face.
That
was
definitely
one
of
the
highlights
of
my
law
school
days.
Looking back
at
my
time
in
college,
graduate
school, and
especially
law
school,
I
know
that
the
classes
that
were
the
most
fun,
and
where
I
had
the
most
laughs,
were
many
of
the
same
classes
where
I
also
did
the
best.
Was
I
an
honor
student
or
68 To
KILL
A
MOCKINGBIRD
(Universal
Pictures
1962)
(Gregory
Peck
played
defense
attorney
Atticus
Finch,
who
defended
a
black
man
wrongly
accused
of
raping
a
white
woman. Peck won
the
Best
Actor
Academy Award
for
his
performance.).
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING YOUR CALLING
295
valedictorian?
Hardly...but
I
was
no
academic chump,
either.
There
is
just
something heartwarming
about
any teacher
who
can
make
a
class
fun
and
enjoyable,
irrespective
of
the discipline.
In
response
to
the
open-ended questions
at
the
end
of
the
survey, students
identified
"humor"
and
making
the
material "fun"
as
specific
characteristics
they
sought
in
an
"entertaining"
teacher.
For
instance,
a
Colorado
student
said:
"Teachers
that
are
funny,
friendly,
make
sarcastic
comments,
etc
....
are
more
real
and
it
makes
class
more
interesting
which
facilitates
learning."
Several others
said
things
like:
the
"best
way
to
keep
students'
attention
is
to
try
to
make
class
fun
or
entertaining."
"Be
a
dynamic
lecturer"
was
another
comment
echoed
by
several students.
"If
a
teacher
is
entertaining,
knows
the
material
and
enjoys
teaching,
then learning
is
so
much
easier"
nicely
summarizes what
many
students
value
in
a
good
teacher.
69
In
my
own
teaching
endeavors,
I
merely stand
in
front
of
a
classroom and
tell funny
stories
all
day
about negotiable
instruments,
70
how
ordering
a
number
six
from
Wendy's
becomes
an
express contract, how finding
money
is
includable
as
part
of
the
finder's
gross
income for tax
purposes,
7
or
how
drunkenly
signing
a
restaurant
check
resulted
in
a
valid
contract
for
the
sale
of
a
farm.
72
This
works
for
me.
I
enjoy
teaching
and
I
have fun doing
it.
Most
importantly,
I'm
reasonably
sure
that
the
majority
of
my
students
have
fun
with
my in-class, Dean
Martin-style comedy
routine, and
many
of
them
have
done
well
in
my
classes.
In
the sixteen
years
that
I
have
been
blessed
to
know
and
work
with
Geoff,
I
have had the
privilege
of
sitting
in
on
his Business
Writing, Sociology,
and
Speech
Communication
classes
where
his
students'
reactions
are
just
comedic
platinum.
I've
seen
his
students
at
their
desks
just
crying
and
having convulsions
(from
69
Levy,
supra
note
67,
at
82.
70
U.C.C.
§
3-104
(2002).
71
See
generally,
Cesarini
v.
United
States,
296
F. Supp.
3
(N.D.
Ohio
1969).
72
Lucy
v.
Zehmer,
84
S.E.2d
516,
518
(Va.
1954).

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
laughing
so
hard)
from
his
witty
one-liners
and
his
dance
steps
across the
room.
When
he sits
in
on
my
law
classes,
happily
for
me,
I
get
similar
reactions
when
I
tell
stories
(fictitious-don't
panic!)
about
my
pole
dancing,
prostitution,
and
insider
trading
misadventures..
in
addition
to
my
day
job..
among
many
other
tall
tales. When
we
get
together
in
class
and
let
the
zingers
fly,
it
really
lightens the load and
spirits
of
our students,
and
helps
them
do
well
in
our classes.
Over the years,
Geoff
and
I
have
developed
a
definite
reputation
in
our
college
as
a
fairly serviceable
comedy
team.
Geoff
is
the
rubber-faced
comic,
and
I
am
the straight
man. Our
closest
friends
on
the
faculty
and
administration
consider
me
to
be
Dean
Martin
to
his
Jerry Lewis
(a
very
nice
compliment)
or
Dan
Rowan
to
his
Dick
Martin
(another very
nice compliment),
or
in
some circles,
Jack
Klugman
to
his
Tony Randall
(also
a
very
nice
compliment).
73
I
am
not
sure
if
any
of
these
comedic legends
would
be
impressed
(especially
since Jerry
Lewis
is
the
only
one
still
with
us
as
of
this
writing) with
a
pair
of
nondescript misfits
like
us
being
compared
to them,
but
we
will
address
that
in
our
next
article.
We
both
believe
in
our hearts
that
our
students'
successes
and
our
having
fun on
the
job
comes
directly
from the fact
that
we
truly
enjoy
what
we
do
now,
which
is
merely
telling
stories
and
having
our
students
have
fun,
relax,
and
also
learn
something
in
the
process.
"My
mission
is
to
make
people
laugh,
so
that
the
travail
of
this
earthly
life
doesn't
seem
so
hard
to
them.
74 I
have
been
teaching
for seventeen
years
(and
counting), and
I
have
been
safely
removed
from
the corporate
world
for the
past
twenty
years.
I
cannot conceive
of
doing
anything
else
now.
71
Monroe Coll.,
Faculty,
MONROE
COLL.
WKLY.
OBSERVER,
2
(Dec.
7,
2009)
(on
file
with author).
74
RICHARD
N.
BOLLES,
WHAT
COLOR
IS
YOUR
PARACHUTE?
A
PRACTICAL
MANUAL FOR
JOB-HUNTERS
AND
CAREER
CHANGERS
292
(Ten Speed
Press
2013).
296 [Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING YOUR
CALLING
3.
Meeting our
Calling:
Loving
Post-Corporate
Life
as
Professors
and
Having Passion
in
the
Classroom
Gilmore:
At
this
point
in
my
life,
I
cannot
say
often enough
how
much
I
love
teaching.
I
believe
in
my
heart
that
if
one loves
what
he
does
for
a
living,
it
is
not work.
I
am
not
the
only
person
who
has this
mindset.
The
legendary
centenarian
comedian George
Bums,
when
he
was
only ninety-five
years
young,
voiced
a
similar
sentiment
in
an
interview
with
the
Los
Angeles
Times:
The
most important
idea
is
to
fall
in
love with
what
you
do
for
a
living.
That's
terribly
important.
Here
I
am
95
years
old, and
I
got
up this
morning
with
something
to do
that
I
love.
If
you
love
what you
do
for
a
living,
it
works.
A
lot
of
people
work
and
hate
what
they
do,
but
I
love
it.
Even
when
I
was
a
failure
in show
business,
from
age
7
to
24,
I
didn't
think
I
was
a
failure.
I
loved
what
I
was doing.
I
thought
the audience
was
a
flop,
not
me.
75
Like
any
professional
pursuit,
one does
go
through
some
growing pains
on
the
way
to
reaching
one's
ultimate niche.
I
certainly
did.
It
is
similar
to
a
professional
athlete
stumbling
through
an
atrocious
rookie
season,
but
eventually
plays well
enough
to
win
championships,
to
win
league
Most
Valuable
Player
awards, and
eventually make
his
sport's
Hall
of
Fame
(former
Denver Broncos
Hall
of
Fame
quarterback
John
Elway's
disastrous
1983
rookie
season comes to
mind).
76
Although
I
have seventeen years
of
teaching
experience
under
my belt,
and
I
have confidence
in
my
ability,
it
was not
always
easy
for me
to
get
where
I
am
now.
This
was
especially
the
case
when
I
first
started.
The
first
course
I
ever
taught
was
Accounting
15
Jim
Washburn,
STILL
SMOKIN':
He's
Older
Than the
Model
T, but
George
Burns
Shows
No
Real
Signs
of
Slowing Down,
L.A.
TIMES
(Nov.
14,
1991),
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-11-14/news/ol-2056_lgeorge-burns/2.
76
John
Elway,
PRO
FOOTBALL
REFERENCE.COM,
http://www.pro-football-
reference.com/players/E/ElwaJoOO.htm (last
visited
Mar.
7,
2015).
297

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
Principles
I.
For
all
of
my
knowledge
and
intellect (allegedly),
I
certainly did not
have
the aura
of
somebody
who
knew what
he
was doing,
and
it
really showed
in
my
vocal
inflections
that
I
was
not
the
most
confident
person
either.
Addressing
a
college
classroom
was
much
harder
than
I
anticipated,
and
I
saw quite
quickly
that
playing
lawyer
in
a
mock
exercise
and
being
a
real
life
college
professor
were
mutually
exclusive.
I've
found
that
if
you
give
love to students,
they
will
give
love
in
return.
I
remember
the
first
class
I
taught
in
law
school.
I
was
terrified
of
public
speaking,
and
I
can
assure
you
that
my
first
class
began
poorly.
I
stammered.
I
paused
in
awkward
places.
I
said very
little
of
substance.
I
was
dying
up
there,
but
I
found comfort
in
the
smile
and
undivided attention
of
a
student-a
student
who
was
smiling
and
being
attentive
simply
because
she
was
a
nice
person who
saw
that
I
was
struggling
on
my first
day.
This
student
exemplifies
how
kind
so
many
of
our
students
are.
I
received
very
good
evaluations
at
the
end
of
my
first
year.
However, upon
reflection,
I
was
at
best
a
mediocre teacher
back
then.
77
Luckily,
I
kept
at
it. "This means
bringing
energy
to every
class, as
if
you're
having
a
mortal
battle
with
inexperience
that
you
have
to win."
78
One
night
halfway
through
the
semester,
as
I
was
preparing
for
class,
the
Executive
Vice
President
of
my
college
stopped
by
and
told
me
that
I
had
really improved
as
the
semester
progressed. That
really
meant
a
lot
to me, and was the
turning
point
in showing
me
that
I
made
the
right
career
decision this
time.
I
do
not
know
what my
teacher evaluations
were
for
that
semester,
but
they must
have
been good
enough
for
me
to
get
invited
back
for
the
following semester
...
and
every semester
since
then.
I
admit
it
...
I
am
at
a
wonderful
station
in
my
current
professional
life.
I
love
teaching
Forensic Accounting,
Business
77
Holm,
supra
note
62,
at
228.
78
Id.
at
226.
[Vol.
16.3
298

2014]
THE JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
Law, Individual
Income
Taxation,
and
Corporate Income
Taxation.
When
I
am
telling stories,
I
mean teaching, my
work
days
fly
by.
In
my
Forensic Accounting
class
every
semester,
I
always
show
the
movie
The
Producers.
79
This,
in
my
view,
is
the
single greatest
movie about
accounting
fraud and
it
perfectly
fits with
the
subject
matter
of
the
course
(financial
fraud).
It
also
serves
to
bring
home
the
point
that
there
is
very
little
disconnect
between
what
goes
on
inside
the
classroom
and
what
goes
on
in
real
life.
Geoff
and
I
are
blessed
to
work
at
a
job
that
we
truly
love,
as
well
as
with
an
employer
(our
current
one)
that
loves
us
back.
It
is
amazing
to us
(even
now)
that
we
get
paid,
in
essence,
to
tell
stories and
have
fun all
day.
Our
good fortune
today
reminds
us
of
the
classic
line
from
the
original
Ocean
's
Eleven,
in
which
one
of
the
co-conspirators
who
helped
burglarize
five Las
Vegas
casinos
on
New
Year's
Eve
remarked:
"If
it
had
been
any
easier,
I
would
have
been
ashamed
to
take
the
money."
80
We
believe
that
line
perfectly
sums up the
joy
that
we
and
many
others
feel
in
doing
work
we
enjoy
and
feel
good about. "Teaching
is
fun,
and
when
you have
passion
for
what
you
do,
you
give
it
all
you
got."
81
No
matter
where
my
career
pursuits
might
take me
in
the
future,
I
have
no
doubt
that
I
will
be
blessed
to
be
a
college
professor
for
as
long
as
God
lets
me live.
Smith:
One
way
that
passion
manifests
itself
for
me
is
in
the
classroom.
When you
are
passionate
about
your career,
job,
life,
and
family,
you
do
things without
focusing
on
time.
In
my
teaching,
I
have learned
to
be
present,
in
the
moment,
engaged,
and
this
translates
into
learning,
laughter,
and
fun.
Teaching
social sciences
(Sociology, Marriage
and
Family,
and
Psychology)
can be
somewhat
banal depending
on
the professor
and
their
level
of
passion
for the
subject.
Are
you
called
to
teach?
Is
this
your passion? Do
you
like
to work
a
truncated
schedule
and
have
weekends
off?
What
is
your
passion?
79
THE
PRODUCERS
(Metro
Goldwyn
Mayer
1968).
80
OCEAN'S
ELEVEN
(Warner Brothers
1960).
81
Holm,
supra
note
62,
at 227.
299

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
The
answers
to
those
questions
are
the
key
to
finding
your
passion.
In
my
case,
I
can
bring
my
outside
interests and
meld
them
into
my
classroom
activities.
Depending
on
the course,
I
can
use
tapes
by
Bill Cosby,
Andy
Griffith
or
The
Three
Stooges
to
teach real
life
concepts.
After twenty
years
of
teaching
college
and
graduate
school,
I
believe
students
(adult
learners
as
well)
learn
better
when
they
are
engaged,
are
having
fun,
and
see
the
relevance
of
what's
being
taught to their
lives.
In
our
classes,
we
tend
to
have
excellent
attendance.
As
an
instructor,
I
cannot
control
who my students
are.
I
can,
however,
control
my
level
of
passion,
commitment,
and
zeal.
Passion, commitment
and
being zealous
translate
into better
attendance
(by
the
professor
and
the
students). Better attendance
generally
correlates
to
better student
grades,
which
is
inextricably
linked
to
better student
retention.
In a
nutshell,
if
the
professor
has fun and
can operate
well
outside the
parameters
of
the
proverbial
box,
so
can
the
student
body.
Students
that
show
an
ability
to
think outside
of
constraints
can
become
future
members
of
society
capable
of
doing
the
same.
Those
same future
members
that
can
think
differently
can
become
corporate
leaders,
teachers,
and
mentors
who find
their
passion
and
enable
others
to
find
their
passion
as
well.
D.
Smith's
Profound
Question
Smith:
I
attended
and
graduated
from
Bernard
M.
Baruch
College.
I
earned
a
Bachelor's
Degree
in
Business Administration,
and
it
was
off
to
corporate
America.
I
accepted
a
position
at
Nestle
Foods
as
a
product merchandiser
in
the
New
York City
market.
Eventually,
I
went
into sales
and
marketing
and did
work
in
the
newly
emerging
Latino
market
I
stayed
at
Nestle
for
several
years
and
eventually
took
a
position
at
Coca-Cola
in
management.
The
hours
at
Coke were
especially
long.
There were
the
requisite
meetings, employee
management,
and
entertaining
of
clients
(often
on
weekends).
[Vol.
16.3
300

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
301
Many
meetings
included
travel
and
often were
scheduled
to
commence before
seven
o'clock
a.m.
It
was
very
common
to
work
fourteen
to
seventeen
hours
a
day (six
to
seven days
per
week).
I
was
armed
with the
corporate
beeper, which
meant
I
could
be
reached after
working hours
(keep
in
mind
this
was
the
1980s).
We
had
company
fishing
trips
(where we
discussed
business), political
fundraising
dinners
(where
we
discussed
business)
and
a
corporate
basketball
team
(where
we
discussed-you
guessed
it-business).
Do
you
sense
a
pattern
here?
I
literally
ate,
slept, and
drank
business
approximately
ninety
hours
per
week.
It
was
virtually
impossible
to
achieve
anything that remotely
resembled
"work-
life"
balance.
I
subsequently
left
the
world
of
Coca-Cola
and
returned
to
Nestle
Foods.
I
was
recruiting,
training,
marketing,
and
selling.
I
also
enrolled
in
graduate
school
and,
as
one
might
imagine,
kept
very
busy.
After
doing
this
for more
than
a
decade,
I
had
an
opportunity
to
visit
my
parents.
During
the
visit,
I
shared
a
most-
telling
meal
with
my
mom.
Mom
then
asked
me the
most-profound
question
that
sociologists
and
clinical
psychologists
will
probably
ponder
for
decades.
Over
sandwiches
she
asked,
"Who
benefits
from your
work?"
Thank
you
MOM.
My
initial
response was
"I
do."
What
a
shallow,
selfish response
for someone
who was
raised
to serve
and
help
other
people.
Looking
back,
this
was
another
stage
in
my
journey.
My
ten
years
in
corporate
America,
came
with
excellent
salaries,
benefits,
cars,
bonuses
and
tuition
reimbursement.
My
wardrobe
was
professional
and
I
was always
well
groomed.
However,
as
I
progressed
in
my career,
a
chronic
sense
of
emptiness
was
prevalent.
It
took
me
a while,
but
I
realized
material
things
do not
make
you
happy,
but happiness
comes
from
within.
Finding
your
passion
is
a
manifestation
of
internal feelings that
connect
to
outward
actions
and
emotions. Passion
stems
from
the
right
mindset,
sacrifice
and
service to
others.
In
the
Bible,
Jesus
said,
"The greatest among
you
will
be
your
servant.,
82
82
Matthew
23:11
(New International
Version);
see
also
Matthew
20:26-27
(New
Living
Translation)
("Whoever
wants to
be
a
leader among
you must
be
your
servant,
and
whoever
wants
to be
first
among
you must
become
your
slave.").

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
Gilmore:
That
is
a
great
question.
In
my
wasted corporate
life,
my
answer
to
that
question certainly
would have
been:
anybody
BUT
me!
E.
The
Next
Step
Smith:
I
stayed
at
Nestle
Foods, enrolled
in
night
school,
and
completed
my
master's
degree.
The
degree
exposed
me
to
a
new
network
of
professional
classmates
and
re-energized
my
career.
I
also
developed
a
new
way
of
thinking, especially
in
classes
that
dealt
with
counseling
and
problem
solving.
Ironically,
the school
I
attended
was
called
the
New
School
for
Social
Research.
My
classes
were
run
by
some very nice
and
interesting
professors.
The
learning
process
was
strengthened
by the
school's
Greenwich Village location.
After
earning
my
Master's
Degree
in
Management,
I
returned
to
my
corporate day
job.
As
a
reward
for
my
educational
attainment,
my supervisor
gave
me
a
double
increase.
I
was
30
years
old, educated but
still
unfulfilled.
On
my
journey,
I've
learned
that
if
something
is
trying
to
get
the attention
of
your
subconscious,
it's
worth
addressing.
We
are
all
marvelously
created,
83
and
if
something
like an
idea,
a
thought,
or
situation
keeps
presenting
itself,
do
not dismiss
it-it
could
be
a
link to
finding
your
passion.
I
eventually
left
Nestle
Foods
(after
a
merger) and moved
to
a
series
of
consulting
and
marketing/sales
positions.
I
remained
active
in
my
faith,
my
church,
and
my
community.
In
essence,
I
took
care
of
myself
while
I
was
still
on
my
journey.
83
Psalms
139:14
(English
Standard
Version)
("I
praise
you,
for
I
am
fearfully
and
wonderfully
made.").
302
[Vol.
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2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
303
F.
Smith's
"Beshert"
Smith:
There
are
many
Hebrew
words
that
I
love
but none
more
than
"beshert.
" It
translates
into
your
path
or
destiny.
8 4
This
word
presupposes
that
we are
aware
that
we
all
have
an
individual
path
or
destiny.
8 5
Often,
all
around
us
are
clues
to our
beshert.
As
I
mentioned earlier,
so
many
people
are
preoccupied
with
their
own
lives,
pain, and
past
regrets
to notice
the
cues
to
their
respective
destinies.
As
I
was
interviewing,
I
was
contacted
by
a
senior manager
from
an
international grocery
manufacturer
about
the
possibility
of
being
a
manager
in
his corporation.
The
position
had
growth
opportunities,
travel,
a
car, and
all
the
perks
of
corporate
life.
As
he
reiterated
during
our
meeting, corporate
life
is
your
comfort
zone.
That
is
when
I
made
the
distinction
that
comfort
and
passion
are
generally mutually
exclusive emotions.
Just
because you
are
comfortable
with something does
not
mean
that
it's
your passion.
The
more
he
talked,
the
louder
my
instincts screamed,
"No!"
Towards
the end
of
our conversation,
I
literally told
him,
"This
is
not
my
path."
I
was feeling
that
my
passion
was working
in
an
educational setting.
As
dumbfounded
as the
executive
was,
he
said
he
understood
my
logic.
His
line
of
questioning
then
shifted
from
corporate
work
to
my
then
untapped
desire
to
work
in
academia.
Again,
my only
response
was
that
I
felt
called
to teaching;
I
never
felt
called
to
work
in
a
Fortune
500
company.
Our
meeting
ended
and
he
told
me
to call
him
if
school does
not
work
out (that
was
in
1992).
I
doubt
he is still
waiting
to
hear
from
me,
twenty-three
years
later. Moreover,
I
thank
God
that
I
never
needed
to
call.
8'
Beshert
Definition,
Yiddish Dictionary Online,
available
at
http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/search-using-english-letters-find-
english-definition/bashert.
15
LEE
GOLDWASSER, GREAT
GRANDMA'S
LAST
HURRAH
58 (2011)
("My
favorite
Yiddish
word
is
'beshert.'
It
means
something
was
meant
to
be.
When
you
can't
explain
a
strange
event,
it's
'beshert'
that
clarifies
what
you
cannot
see.").

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
G.
Smith
's
Beshert
Redux
Smith:
Approximately
a
week
after
our meeting,
a
neighbor
asked
me
for
a
lift
to
work
in
lower Manhattan.
During
the
previous week,
my
car
was
in
the
shop and
I
was
excited
to
get
back
on
the
road.
After dropping
off
my
neighbor,
I
headed
south
in
New York
City
for
reasons
that
I
still
cannot
explain.
My
"fixed"
car
developed engine trouble
and
started to
sputter.
I
called
the mechanic
who
told
me
to let the
car
sit
for
an
hour.
Realizing that
the
car
was
a
few
blocks
from the
New
School,
I
found
a
meter
and
parked.
It
had
been
some
time since
visiting
my
alma
mater.
I
went
in,
admired
the changes,
and
saw
several
former
professors.
That
is
when
fate
stepped
into
my
life.
As
I
walked
down
the
hall,
a
former professor stopped
me.
She
told
me
that
the
graduate school
recently
received
a
grant to
start
an
after-school
program
in
an
inner-city
housing
project.
They
needed
someone
to
oversee this enterprise,
and
she
was
planning
on
calling
me
that
week.
I
interviewed
on
the
spot
(wearing
a
sweatshirt,
jeans,
and
work
boots).
I
accepted
the
position
and
was
then
asked
if
I
would
consider
a
full-time
administration position
at
the
graduate
school.
Again,
I
said
yes,
and
became
the
Director
of
Career Development
and
Placement
at
the
New
School
for
Social
Research.
In
that
position,
I
developed
my
counseling
and
listening skills,
and
this reinforced my desire
to
serve
other
people.
As
director,
I
learned
just
how
few
people
are
happy with
their
careers.
I
started
doing
one-on-one
counseling
sessions,
which
eventually
developed
into
group
teaching.
I
was
in
that
group
teaching role
for
about
six
months when
an
adjunct
professor
quit
about
48
hours
before
his
class was
scheduled
to begin.
Since
I
was
already
"teaching"
small
groups,
my supervisor
asked
me
if
I
wanted
to
teach.
Keeping
in
line
with
my
usual
demeanor,
I
agreed
without
blinking
an
eye.
I
developed
a
curriculum,
got
a
textbook,
and
lectured.
It
was
during
that
first class
that
I
realized
that teaching,
counseling,
and
[Vol.
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304

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR CALLING
sharing
information
was
what
I
was
put
on
this
earth to
do.
I
thank
my
supervisor
to
this
day.
H.
Smith
's
Experience Counseling
Rat
Racers
Smith:
Throughout much
of
the
1990s,
I
was
a
career
counselor
and
was
frequently
called
on
to
assist
people
with
their
job
searches.
Many
people
looked
at salaries
first,
titles
second,
and
the
position
responsibilities
at
a
distant
third.
This
was the
beginning
of
trouble
for people.
All
too often,
one takes
a
job
only
to
find
that
he
lacks
the
requisite
zeal
that
will
help
him
build
and
sustain
a
career.
As
a
career
counselor,
predictably,
I
talked
to
a
great
deal
of
burned-out,
frustrated
job
seekers
who
also
seemed
to
be miserable
in
other
areas
of
their
lives.
Needless
to
say,
they
lacked
balance
between
work,
fun,
and
family.
Although
I
probably
counseled thousands
of
individuals,
one
encounter
comes to
mind.
I
met
with
a
middle-aged male
who
had
spent
the
past
twenty-five
years
as a
mergers
and
acquisitions
attorney
for
a
large,
respected multinational company.
His
job
required him
to
travel
seventy-five percent
of
the
month
at
minimum.
"John" was
married, had
two
children,
and
was
seemingly
always
at
work.
He missed
most
of
his kids'
school
events (concerts and
conferences).
As
you
might
have
figured,
the
years
went
quickly.
Before
he
knew
it,
the
children were out
of
college
and
he
was
in
a
banal,
empty-shell
marriage.
Like
so
many individuals,
John
traded
a
balanced
life
for
a
large
salary,
bonuses,
and
profit
sharing
along
with
an
eighty-five-
hour
work
week.
He
became
estranged
from
his
passions,
support
system,
and
community.
Sadly,
the
law
was
not his
passion
or
his
life's
calling.
When
I
met John,
he
was
meticulously
attired
and well
groomed.
During
our
initial
forty-five
minute
meeting,
he
looked
at
his
watch
a
minimum
of
seven
times.
Clearly,
this
man
was
stressed
and
preoccupied.
On
paper,
he
had
an
exclusive
New
York
305

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
City
address,
a
self-proclaimed
trophy
wife,
and
a
weekend retreat
that
he
rarely
used.
Unfortunately,
he
appeared
to
be
the
poster
boy
for
unhappiness.
After several
meetings,
I
asked
John,
"What
are
you
passionate
about?"
His
rather dour reply
was,
"Quite
frankly,
I
do
not know-
and
that
scares
me."
I
reviewed
his
resume,
and
nestled
between
legal
positions,
law
review
articles,
and
a
plethora
of
corporate
jobs,
was
a
position
teaching
inner
city
children.
We
discussed
this
position
and, for the
first
time,
John
smiled.
He
felt
that
teaching
was
a
calling, but
one
that did not
pay
as
much
as
a
corporate
legal
position.
His
father
discouraged John
from
teaching
and
felt
that
law
was
a
noble
undertaking.
Here's
the
point:
many people
have found
their
calling
or
passion,
only
to
be
persuaded
by
others
that
they
should redirect
their
efforts into
more
lucrative endeavors.
That's
where
we
miss
our opportunities.
John's
passion
(just
like
yours
and mine)
is
that
thing that he
loves
and
would
generally
do
for
free.
Sometimes
your
passion
is
disguised
as
a
hobby,
a
volunteer project,
or
even
some
type
of
temporary
crisis
that
gets
our
attention.
Often, our
passion
or
calling
can be
right
in
front
of
us,
but
we
can
miss
it
anyway.
"A
calling
is
something
to
be
discovered, something
that
was
there
all
the
time
but
hidden,
obscured,
ignored.
It's
like
a
vein
of
gold,
lying
undisturbed
for
centuries
deep
underground,
until
a
skillful
and
lucky
miner
(you!)
pinpoints
its
location and
persuades
it
to
give up
its
fortune."
86
However,
we
get
side-tracked
by
life
(bills,
relationships,
education,
and
family
commitments). Frequently,
our
calling
is
literally
"calling"
us,
but
it
gets
drowned
out
by
stress and
things
that
we
invest
time
in
that
are
mentally
and
physically
draining.
Remember,
a
calling
is
a
summons-you
have
to
listen
for
it.
It's
like the
still,
small
voice
of
God
that
Elijah
heard-
words
dancing
on
the
wind,
words
you can
hear only
if
you
86
ALLEGRETTI,
supra
note
13,
at
62.
306
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
quiet down
and
rid
yourself
of
the noise
and
busyness
that
clutter
up
your
life.
7
VIII.
THE BENEFITS OF
ONE'S
CALLING
A.
Helping
those
in
need
I
think
that
a
person
who
is
attached
to
riches,
who
lives
with
the
worry
of
riches,
is
actually
very
poor.
If
this
person puts
his
money
at
the
service
of
others,
then
he
is
rich,
very
rich.
88
In
our opinion,
one
of
the
many benefits
of
finding
one's
calling
is
being
able
to
help
someone
solve
a
problem.
In
fact,
helping
people
in
need
has the
same
common denominator:
one
person
has
a
particular
problem,
and that
person
consults
with
a
specialist
to
solve
that
person's
problem.
A
sick
person
goes to
see
a
doctor.
A
client
with
a
legal
issue
goes
to see
an
attorney.
A
couple
with relationship
issues
goes
to see
a
counselor.
A
struggling student
goes to
see
his
professor.
In
the
legal
world, practicing
attorneys
enjoy
their
jobs
precisely
because
they
can
help
clients solve
their
legal
issues.
Several legal
practitioners
have
expressed
this
very sentiment.
Here
is
an
example: "Most
people
who
work
for
the
government
are
there
by
choice....
No
one
is
getting
rich
off
of
it.
We
have
to
have
another
motivation.
I
have
a
sense
of
accomplishment
when
a
crime
victim walks out
of
the courtroom,
feeling
like
justice
was
served."
89
Similarly,
Karin
Crump,
the former
president
of
the
Texas
Young
Lawyers
Association
(TYLA),
rekindled
her
career passion
in
practicing
law
in
a
certain
way:
87
1d.
88
MOTHER
TERESA,
IN
THE
HEART
OF
THE
WORLD:
THOUGHTS,
STOREES
AND
PRAYERS
70
(New
World
Library
1997).
89
Morgan
Morrison,
Should
I
Stay
or
Should
I
Go?
Personal
Accounts
of
Career
Transitions,
69
TEX.
B.J.
156, 159
(2006).
307

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
About
the
time
when
I
was
reconsidering
my
career
choice,
I
began
working
on
local
bar
activities
in
Dallas.
I
was first
tapped to
organize
a
teddy
bear
drive
after
the
chair
of
the
project
moved
to
another
city. Someone
had
to
collect bears
for the
kids
who
were
sitting
in
hospitals
and shelters
over
the
holidays.
Then
there was
a
book
drive
to
benefit
Head
Start,
a
Habitat
for
Humanity
home
build,
the
DAYL
Leadership Class
and
VoTexas,
the
TYLA high
school
voter registration project.
By
the
time
I
started
working
on
Junior
Judges,
TYLA's
curriculum
project
that
teaches
fourth
graders
about
the rule
of
law,
I
was
hooked.
In
the
six
years
I
have
served
on
the
TYLA
board
of
directors,
I
have
developed
friendships
with
other
lawyers
who
enjoy
bar
work
and
who
similarly
find
passion
in
public
service.
I
spend
much
less
of
my
free time
worrying
about
deadlines
and more
of
it
actually
helping
people
and
doing things
that
made
a
difference.
My
entire
outlook
on
our profession
has
changed.
Every time
I
work
on
a
TYLA
project,
I
am
reminded
of
why
I
went
to
law school.
Every time
I
walk
into
a
classroom
to
present
a
TYLA
project,
I
realize
how
respected our
profession
is
and
should
continue
to
be.
Every
time
I
speak
to
law
students,
I
am
reminded
of
why
ours
is
one
of
the
noblest
of
professions.
TYLA
has
renewed my
faith
in
our
profession
and
provided
opportunities
to
do
more
meaningful
things with
my
legal
skills
than
I
would
have
ever
been
provided
otherwise.
We,
as
young
lawyers,
are
uniquely
trained
to
provide
service
to
others.
By
putting those
skills
to
work,
public
service
can
and
will
help
you
remember
why
you
decided
to become
a
lawyer. Serving the
public
will help
you
find
your
passion.
90
As
professors,
we
experience this
all
the
time.
Students ask
us
for personal
advice,
career
advice,
academic
advice,
and
the
like.
We
are
most
gratified
when our
students
ask
us
for
90
Karin
Crump,
Finding Passion
in
Your
Practice,
69
TEX.
B. J.
555
(2006).
308
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION: FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
309
recommendation
letters
for
employers,
graduate
school,
scholarships,
and
yes,
law
school.
As
much
fun
as
we
have
teaching,
the
true
joy
comes
from
seeing
our
students
reach
their
academic, professional,
and
personal
goals.
This
truly
validates
what
we
do.
B.
Loving
What
You
Do
Gilmore:
Contrary
to
popular
belief,
and
the
literature
that
supports
that
belief,
there
are
people
who
enjoy
what
they
do
for
a
living.
I
can
certainly attest
to
that
sentiment,
and
I
have
been
on
both
sides
of
the
fence.
It
is
truly
a
joy
going
to
a
job
where
I
know
that my
efforts
will
not
go
to
waste.
91
Does
this
mean
that there
is
the
perfect,
no-stress
(and
no-office-politics)
job
out
there
where
nothing
ever
goes
wrong?
Of
course
not.
However,
enjoying
one's
job
means
that
one
is
better
able
to
deal
with
the occasional
bad
day.
One
is
also
better
able
to
handle
any
other
downsides
that
will
occur
once
in
a
while.
"But
if
your
work
is
a
calling,
you
know
you're
in
the
right
place,
doing
the
right
thing,
and
this
gives
you
the
energy
and
endurance
to carry
on
in
bad times
as
well
as
good."
92
Part
of
my career satisfaction
today
also comes
from
the
fact
that
I
now
know what
I
do
NOT
want
to
do.
Although
I
have
the
academic
credentials
(I
think)
to
rise
in
the
legal
or
accounting
professions
if
I
wanted
it,
I
realize now
that
I
am
not hard-wired
for
that
type
of
lifestyle,
especially
now
at
age fifty.
Even
though
I
saw
some
of
this
during
my accounting
days,
I
will
never
again
tolerate
my further professional
life
as
just
one big
deadline,
sacrificed
to
the altar
of
billable
hours.
"Legal
life
lurches
from
deadline
to
deadline,
as
lawyers
remain
tethered
to
their
offices
with
email,
Blackberries,
cell
phones,
and
faxes.
Although
these
91
Ecclesiastes
5:19
(New
Living
Translation)
("To
enjoy
your work
and accept
your
lot
in
life-this
is
indeed
a
gift
from
God.").
92
ALLEGRETTI,
supra
note
13,
at
64.

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
developments
have
made it easier
for attorneys
to work
from
home,
they
have
also
made it
harder
not
to."
93
In
addition,
I
found it
personally
grating,
and
mentally
exhausting,
trying
to
justify
every
last
thing (including
my
existence) to corporate
managers
and the
board
of
directors.
I
was
always
dealing with
a
corporate
mentality
of
incompetent
until
proven
otherwise
(similar
to
guilty until
proven innocent).
I
always
had
the
fear
that
I
would
have
to
confront
this
small-minded
mentality
if
I
ever
wanted
to
practice
law.
And,
if
I
wanted
to
move up
in
the
ranks, there
would
be more
pressure,
more
politics,
and
more
stress.
"For
lawyers,
escalating incomes come
with
escalating
demands and
have squeezed
out
time
for
family,
friends,
public
service,
and
personal
interests
that
would
ultimately
prove
more
satisfying."
94
As the
old
adage
says,
"New
Level,
New
Devil.
95
I
was
not about
to
repeat that mistake
and take
that
on
a
second
time,
no
matter how good
the
money
might
have
been.
I
am
sure
that
I
could have
made
more
money
if
I
had practiced
tax
law
or
maybe
become
a
partner
in the
tax
department
of
a
CPA
firm.
Even
in
academia,
Geoff
and
I
have
no
desire
to
become
a
department chair,
a
dean,
or
any other
administrator.
Nor
do
we
want
to
sit
in
endless
meetings
and write
management
reports
all
day,
every
day.
We
know
we
are
at
a
point
where
our efforts
are
truly appreciated
by our
students,
our colleagues, and
our
college
administration.
That
is
worth more
to us
than any law
partnership,
CPA firm
partnership,
or
any
comer
office.
We
also
know
that
we
have
a
much
happier
lifestyle
today,
along
with
career
fulfillment.
This
is
truly
priceless!
Geoff
and
I
are
both
blessed
that
our
teaching endeavors
give
us
the chance
to
work with
interesting people,
the chance
to
write
and
publish,
and,
most importantly,
the
chance
to
do
meaningful
work
that
we
enjoy.
I
do
not
know
if
we
found our
calling,
or
our
"
Deborah
L.
Rhode,
Foreword:
Personal
Satisfaction
in
Professional
Practice,
58
SYRACUSE
L.
REV.
217,
225
(2008).
94Id.
at
226.
95
See,
e.g.,
DAVID
P.
HAYNIE,
Go
YE
THEREFORE
...
DOWN
THE
STREET!:
LESSONS
FROM
A
REVILED EVANGELIST
7
(West
Bow
Press 2012);
JOEL
OSTEEN,
IT'S
YOUR
TIME
222
(Free
Press
2009).
310
[Vol.
16.3

2014]
THE
JOY
OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
311
calling
found us.
Either
way,
we
are
tremendously happy
with
the
result.
We
also
know that
we are
right
where
we
are
supposed
to
be.
C.
Having
Fun
with
Like
Minded
Coworkers
In
our
teaching
exploits
today,
one
of
the high
points
of
the
day
is
interacting
with
our
fellow
professors
who have
as
much
fun
on
the
job
as
we
do.
A
big
part
of
the
interaction
is
that
we
often
get
together
and tell
jokes
and
have
laughs
as
we
go
along.
We
know
that
we
are
part
of
a
championship
team with
one
goal
in
mind-
which
is
to
help our
students
be
successful
in
their
classes,
in
their
professions,
and
in
their
lives.
Gilmore:
In
fact,
I
told
our
department
chair
more
than once
that
if
we
are
the
Yankees,
then
he
is
our
Casey
Stengel,
Billy
Martin,
and
Joe
Torre
rolled
into
one
person.
"We're
not
doing
it
just
for
the
money.
We're
doing
it
for the laughs
and
the
companionship-the
joy
of
those
moments
in
your practice
that
give
you
joy.
96
I
cannot overstate how having
a
few laughs can
just
lighten the
workload.
I
believe
that when
one enjoys
what he
does,
it
is
much
easier
to
have
many
moments
of
fun
and
levity
with
his
friends
on
the
job.
This,
in
turn,
results
in
doing
a
better
job
because
one
is
approaching
his
job
with
a
light-hearted
spirit.
But,
as
already
shown
in
the
preceding
pages,
when
the
job
is
nothing
but
drudgery,
tedium,
and
is
just
emotionally
draining,
then
it
is
just
plain hell
on
earth.
"A
cheerful
heart
is
good
medicine,
but
a
broken spirit
saps
a
person's
strength.,
97
96
Pearlette
J.
Ramos,
Arizona
Attorneys:
Happier
Than
You
Think,
49
ARIZ.
AT-r'Y
22,
29
(2012),
available
at
http://www.myazbar.org/AZAttorney/PDF
Articles/111
2HappyLawyers.pdf.
97
Proverbs
17:22
(New
Living
Translation).

T.M.
COOLEY
J.
PRACT.
&
CLINICAL
L.
IX.
CONCLUSION
Gilmore:
Failure
and
I
were close
companions
(not
friends)
for
many
years.
I
was
a
hopeless high
school
dropout.
I
was
a
miserable
failure
when
I
was
an
accountant.
Many
times, when
I
looked
in
the
mirror,
I
usually
did
not
see
a
success
staring
back
at
me.
How
did
I
go from
all
that
angst
to
the
joy
I
have today?
I
believe
this
is
a
function
of
God's
sovereign genius
and
the
fact
that
God
has
a
sense
of
humor.
I
believe
that God
had
it
all
figured
out
beforehand
that
I
would
have
to
endure years
of
disappointment
before
I
would
be
able
to
appreciate
my success
today.
I
cannot prove
any
of
this
logically, but
I
believe
in my
heart
that
my
years
of
failure
actually
prepared
me
for the
calling
and
career
fulfillment
that
I
enjoy
today.
God
had
taken
my
two
greatest
failures
in
life
and
turned them
into
a
teaching
career
that
I
love.
He
really
did
return
"beauty
for
my
ashes."
98
Smith:
My
father
(Stanford
Smith,
Sr.)
always
admonished
me
to
pace
myself
in
life.
He
said
that,
in
any
relationship,
the
slower
you
go
the
more
you will
know.
That
has
proven
to
be
a
sagacious
statement,
and
it
continues to
be
wiser
the
older
I
get.
His
pearls
of
wisdom
are
excellent metaphors
for
life.
All too
often, people
rush
from
the
start
of
the
day
until
they
literally
drop from
exhaustion
at
day's
end.
Pay attention
to
the
following
sentences and
notice
the verbs
in
each
sentence.
*
People
jump
out
of
bed
and
travel during rush
hour.
*
They run
to
meetings
and
grab lunch.
"
They
run home, often
skipping
dinner.
*
They
zip
to
their kids'
school,
fly
home,
and
pass
out
from
exhaustion.
98
Isaiah
61:3
(New
Living
Translation) ("To
all
who
mourn
in
Israel,
he will
give
a
crown
of
beauty
for
ashes,
a
joyous
blessing
instead
of
mourning,
festive
praise
instead
of
despair.").
[Vol.
16.3

THE
JOY OF
PASSION:
FINDING
YOUR
CALLING
Does
the
above sound
like you?
It
sounds
like
most people
in
America
today.
Technology,
especially the
Internet
and
cell
phones,
tends
to
dominate
the
lives
of
many
working people
today.
When
non-urgent things
control
your
life,
you
may
lose sight
on
what
is
important. Losing
sight
on
what's
important
can
have
you
miss your
passion.
Please,
whenever possible,
take
a
break
or
a
literal
"fast"
from
technology.
This "tech-fast"
can
help
you
regain
focus.
Another
way
to
connect
to
your
passion
is
to
spend
daily
quiet
time alone.
I
believe
in
the
power
of
prayer,
and
I
pray
often
throughout
the
day. Find
a
quiet
location
and
just
pray for
guidance
and
direction. Use
this
time
to
reflect
and
ask
for
divine
intervention
on
your
passion
journey.
After
that,
write
a
list
of
things
to
do
for your
day.
This helps
set
priorities
and
increases
the
probability that
you
won't
get
pulled
away
from
your
goals.
On
your
"to-do"
list,
build
in
some
fun
activities,
such
as
taking
photos
during your lunch
break,
or
taking
a
daily walk
for
30
minutes
to
clear
your
head
for the
day.
In
addition, taking
mid-
week classes
in
areas
outside
of
your profession
can
help
re-ignite
passion
and
expose
you
to new
people,
places,
and
ideas.
People
can
make
a
good living.
People
can
enjoy what
they
do
for
a
living.
Best
of
all,
this
is
not
an
"either-or"
proposition.
We
have
shown
testimonials,
including
our own,
that
people
can
make
a
living
doing
what
they
enjoy.
Reaching
that
station
in
life
involves
soul-searching,
trial
and error, and
ultimately
making
that
leap
of
faith.
Finding
your career
calling
and
reaching
career
fulfillment
is
neither impossible
nor
hopeless.
It
is
not
a
fluke.
Keep
the
faith, and
take
that
leap!
2014]