I remember this one board meeting I attended months ago as a junior attorney (think Milbank/Kirkland/Latham). I was tasked with writing the minutes, basically following whatever was being discussed and documenting the decisions.
The meeting was hybrid, with some people attending physically and others remotely. Our job was to follow the discussion, capture the figures, the company's performance, its competitors, its growth prospects, and whatever strategic decisions emerged to capture in the minutes. The usual corporate bullshit.
But what I remember most vividly was the beginning of that meeting.
One of the guys appeared on the screen, sitting in a beautiful home office, with a beautiful yard in the background, white shirt open, and smoking a fucking cigar. Think of some big baller in finance, the kind of guy who eventually went on to establish his own Hedge Fund doing some interesting investments (and $$).
He started talking numbers. The business, what they were doing, what competitors were up to, where the opportunities were, and so on as if he was explaining what he had for lunch.
And there I was. Sitting behind my screen, taking notes, like a good obedient boy. Sitted at 90 degrees properly on my chair.
I remember thinking, what the fuck am I doing here? You spend years studying, grinding through law school, trying to get into prestigious firms, working ridiculous hours, becoming increasingly sophisticated in all these technical legal matters, and ultimately for what? To become an exceptionally good servant to people who are actually doing things?
I kept thinking about that guy with the cigar and wondering what a fucking contrast. Some people do things, and I am just an obedient good boy (a beta male?) documenting what they did.
I am wasting my life. Wish I was the client.