From Alan Dershowitz to Us!

Usually I write something that has to do with art in this blog. I am doing that now...in a roundabout way. 

I just finished reading America Declares Independence  by Alan Dershowitz.
I have heard lots about Mr. Dershowitz but Googled him to find out more. 

Alan Dershowitz wrote the answer to the question below for lawyers but it can be generalized to anyone:

What advice do you have for young, aspiring lawyers?

I believe strongly that imitation is not the highest form of flattery, because truly unique individuals can never be imitated. But you can learn from them, so long as you realize that you are a different person, with your own dreams, backgrounds, and priorities. Understand the differences and extrapolate from their experiences and aspirations to your own unique life. Be careful, however, about accepting anyone's advice - including my own - on the basis of "years of experience." Before you put too much stock in experience, make sure the person offering the advice has learned from his or her own experiences. Most people don't. They simply repeat their mistakes, over and over again. Their "years of experience" are little more than years of making the same mistakes over and over again without realizing that they are mistakes.

Look up to people who have admirable traits, but understand that all have human foibles, some more than others. Expect to be disappointed, especially if you ever get to know personally those you look up to. Learn to live with the disappointments and still emulate those characteristics of your role models that warrant emulation. But even singular characteristics will rarely be without flaws. Law is an imperfect profession in which success can rarely be achieved without some sacrifice of principle. Thus all practicing lawyers - and most others in the profession - will necessarily be imperfect, especially in the eyes of young idealists. There is no perfect justice, just as there are no absolutes in ethics. But there is perfect injustice, and we know it when we see it.

Don't accept advice that reflects the personalities and priorities of the advice givers, unless you want to be like them. Figure out which kind of situation best suits you as a unique individual with very particular needs and tastes. There is no career path that suits everyone. There is no one right way, though there certainly are some wrong ways. The worst way is to try to fit yourself into someone else's job description. Live in your own skin, not someone else's. It's okay to do someone else's job for a limited period of time as a means toward another end. Sure, go to work for a big firm in order to learn how they do things even if you know you're not suited to that kind of life. But be sure to have an exit strategy and timetable, lest you be trapped by inertia, and by becoming dependent on the seductively huge salaries and staff support that are more typical of big firms than of most other forms of legal practice.

For more advice, please see my book Letters to a Young Lawyer.