What 100% Commitment Looks Like

U.S. culture presents lawyers in either an extremely positive or negative light. We are either good or bad, smart or dumb, wealthy and high powered or overworked with a bleeding heart.

Internally, there are dichotomies too. You went to a top law school, or you didn’t. You work for BigLaw, or you don’t. You believe in 100% commitment to your work, or you strive for work-life balance and are phoning it in.

You are either tough enough to be a lawyer forsaking all semblance of a life, friends, or family in pursuit of being the best or you’re not.

When you give a bunch of A-type lawyers these choices, they almost always want to do the former. It’s not because they don’t want to have a life. It's just that A-type lawyers believe that they will be the exception to the rule. Somehow they will be the best, save the day for their clients, workout, get married, have children, get rich, and be happy all without breaking a sweat. If this means they have to work 90-100 hours a week to do it, so be it…