Why do some of us lose satisfaction in our careers, yet others still feel enthusiastic even after 20 years? Does our professional fulfillment affect our success? What is more important for success: talent, or enthusiasm?
I have discussed these and similar questions with Áron László, Head of the intellectual property practice at Oppenheim Law Firm. Successful people leave clues: read along if you want to know how to start as a trainee and become a partner at a high-standing international law firm.
“Even after 20 years in intellectual property law, I am still fascinated by the cases I have. I am still excited to find out how the judges will decide or what will be the next move of the opponent in our case. I think enthusiasm is the key. When you enjoy what you do, you will inevitably become better at it.
Even others will perceive you as someone more skilled when you have a passion for your career. I am convinced that genuine interest in someone’s job results in more quality work. I tell you an example.
We attend a lot of conferences to find partners for IP services in other countries. Honestly, many times we make our choices on personal impressions about who we want to work with. For example, for those lawyers who talk about their work with enthusiasm, I believe that they will do a better job. If they are interested in what they do, I assume that when they face a complicated case, they will contemplate and pursue it until they will succeed.
But it’s also important to say that even if I love what I do, I still need to do the things I don’t want, in order to do the things I want. No one enjoys checking time sheets and invoices. But I must do it to keep the firm going. And there are so many examples of this.
I started as a trainee in the same law firm where I am a partner now. Back then they only entrusted me with translations. It was not my dream to sit in the library all day long and translate legal texts, but I persisted. So they saw my dedication and I got more and more complicated tasks. You just have to start somewhere, and it’s true for everything in life.
Same with networking. The first conference I attended felt very weird. Talking to hundreds of strange people from all over the world. But it’s only the start which is complicated. I had to have those strange first experiences so now I could connect naturally, with ease at conferences.
Another key to professional fulfillment is your working environment and the people you are surrounded by. When I started my career, the standard working hours were 1800 (billable hours) per year. Some US lawfirms expect 2200 billable hours where you have no choice but to work at night, on the weekend and still you have to cheat to live up to this insane expectation.
When our firm was founded, a basic principle was to create a « livable » life for our colleagues. Where you don’t have to lie, where you don’t have to work that much until you become depressed. We prefer honesty and our demand is rational and that’s why I think people love to work here. This is a baseline of a good atmosphere where people can connect.
It’s amazing to see that our colleagues have a genuine interest in each other. Without any obligation, they go to bars, ice skating, or cinema after work together. It’s more important than it seems. When people create such a bond they won’t be hesitant to ask for help from each other and they won’t stress about asking a question that may seem stupid.
Sharing the same values is crucial in a team. Maybe this is why I never recruit someone based on a test of their professional skills. I am not saying that it is not important, but I don’t think that it is the first thing to consider. For me, the most important in a candidate is that the person is enthusiastic about what we do and they are willing and able to learn. Such a person will select like-minded people when decades after they recruit their own team, and it all creates a virtuous circle.
But I have to say that a legal career is not suitable for everyone. Lawyers need a special skill to balance out their sense of responsibility towards the case. One extreme would be that you don’t care about the outcome because it’s not your money anyway. The other would be to be worried about the consequences of each single decision. Neither of these extremes can be maintained in the long run.
So you have to find the right balance in how much you are involved emotionally in your case. But even with all these experiences, it can happen every 3-5 years that we lose a case that should have been won. To be honest, it is still difficult to deal with. All you can do is learn from that. But these unpredictable losses stay very exceptional. We love to work in a team and we discuss all major decisions together. This way we minimize the risk of error and it is almost impossible that a wrong reasoning will not be caught in the process.
It can also happen that we advise the client not to proceed and then we win. It feels like winning the Lottery. But still, the greatest satisfaction is when we win after careful planning and hard work. This always worked out to me. I believe that success doesn’t come out of nowhere. All along my life, it was always hard work, putting in the hours, and diligent preparation that turned into success.”
It was so captivating to listen to Áron. It made me realize that with some simple but not always prioritized values, like genuine interest, good people, honesty, and persistence, we could so easily achieve long-term professional fulfillment. If I could summarize the essence of his success, I would say the following.
You must choose something you are passionate about. You can work more on something you like, and others will perceive you also as someone more competent. You will succeed in what you believe.
Surround yourself with a like-minded team where you are genuinely interested in each other. If you are an employee, and you don’t feel that you fit in the environment, don’t neglect this personal aspect of your work. Maybe it’s time to consider a change.
Don’t hesitate to make temporary sacrifices if it has long-term potential in it. Áron and other partners of Oppenheim started as trainees, spending endless hours translating in the library. It was not their dream job. But they understood that at that time they had to do something they didn’t want, in order to do later what they do want.
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