The opening page of Tim Browns Hotelman -- Quitting my job as a lawyer at a high-powered Chicago firm and going to work as a cook were the first unlikely steps on my winding road to success. Here’s how it happened: with two business degrees from Michigan and a law degree from Notre Dame under my belt, I began my legal career in a large law firm occupying the tops floors of the American National Bank building in Chicago. But from the start I felt out of place sitting alone in my office cranking out briefs. The only time I saw anyone was when I went down the long hall to the firm’s windowless library. Most of my time was spent sitting scrutinizing law books in the hope of finding the perfect case in support of a client whom I’d never meet. It was draining, to say the least. I suppose that in time I might have become part of the firm’s inner circle, met the clients, and been invited to their country clubs. But at the time all that seemed so far off. My decision to go to law school hadn’t been thought out—my father wanted me to be a lawyer, and I wanted to please him. It was a thin thread upon which my life had been planned, and now it was being tested. My life after work wasn’t any more satisfying. I’d work till seven, ride the subway to Lincoln Park, grab a couple of drinks at Butch’s, then walk the two blocks to my efficiency. I was too exhausted to even attempt dating. Once I asked a pretty girl sitting next to me on the train, “Could I look at your Wall Street Journal?” That was, alas, the closest I ever got to a girl.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 08:12:59 +0000
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