I am the type of person that really takes the “work smarter not harder” attitude to heart. I never really felt challenged in high school and none of my teachers really cared to push me harder. College was similar. I graduated and began working in human resource management. When I figured out exactly how my performance was being measured and how my bonuses were calculated, I focused my effort on those things and only focused on the “non-important” things so my boss would stop bothering me. I was hitting my goals and (by almost all measurables) was pretty successful at my job. I was on autopilot every day and getting bored. Realizing this wasn’t a productive attitude to have early in my career, I started looking for a new challenge. So I quit and decided to go to law school.
My first year was exactly the challenge I was looking for. I thought I really had everything down, committed to memory, and ready to tackle any fact-pattern on my exams without any hesitation. I left my first semester exams feeling pretty good. A few weeks later grades came back and I did not do very well. It was clear that how I handled school in the past was going to be a quick path to the bottom third of the class. I recommitted myself, got more involved, and made friends to study with. My grades quickly improved and I was consistently performing in the top 10-15 percent in my classes. I used the same methodolgy to study for the bar exam, passed on the first try, and opened my own practice two weeks later.
I spent the first five years practicing law and dealing with imposter syndrome at the same time. I managed to find clients. Figuring out how to actually practice law was the hard part. After year 5, I felt pretty comfortable that I knew what I was doing and began figuring out how to build my firm into something more than just myself. The business of law didn’t scare me because I had a business degree, worked in the business world, and was tech-savvy. Surely there would be tools out there that leveraged technology to make my practice more efficient. Unfortunately, I found out quickly that the same systems that are built for regular businesses, don’t really exist for law firms. Most software is basically a simple database with minimal logic that’s cost-prohibitive because it only does one thing.
Because I was already familiar with front-end languages, I decided to learn more back-end programming to build the things my profession was lacking. I started a lot of self-study courses, but didn’t stick with them. I needed that challenge again. I began looking at programs that would fit with my schedule, but also challenge me and hold me accountable. Whether I build something great or not, I felt like the software engineering curriculum would be an invaluable resource to me in the future.
I chose this path because I would rather try something and fail than do nothing at all. I’m lucky to be able to recognize when I’m becoming complacent in my life so I can find a new challenge. My hope is that the inspriation that led me down this path leads to the creation of something useful for someone.