McLarenblog

I had a rather long chat with a lawyer who I will call Mr. C.  He has partially retired from plaintive law in Southern California, United States.  I had seen him at the gym for years but had never got to talk to him very deeply.  This day, December 29, 2015, he shared with me his past history briefly.  His family was Italian and he lived in an Italian community in Rhode Island, United States.  Most of the community members had not gone to college. His family did not expect him to go beyond high school.  He did get good grades in school.  No one ever talked to him to suggest that he go on to college.  He decided to join the high school football team and started out being on the first team.  As the season progressed he failed to get better and slowly receded into being played less.  Next year he made the first team again.  His message was that for whatever reason he never gave up.    He enlisted into the Navy ROTC and asked that his summer cruse be in Europe.  He was assigned to Sicily, Italy.  He had not yet moved to Southern California but his trip to Sicily with its wonderful weather would soon be a measure by which he favored Southern California.  His sister and her husband lived in Southern California and he soon moved there.  He got a job at an insurance company.  The insurance company would pay for any schooling that related to the type of work they were doing.   For whatever reason Mr C decided to take law classes.  He was a very shy person, sitting at the back of the class and afraid to participate in class.  He got his law degree and was scared to stand before a jury to argue his first case.  He put together two arguments that he had to present to the jury in his first trail.  One argument was very short in case he felt too scared and just wanted to end his presentation early.  The second argument notes was much longer.  On the day of the trial he went on for about twenty minutes giving his arguments to the jury.  I sensed that he was rather proud that he chose to stand up so long to give his client the better delivery.  He had a point in telling me his story.  He told me that he never gives up.  I told him that I really appreciate his lesson because I too had practice this and I think, for me, it was out of fear.  I was always fearful that I would fail.  For me failure might mean loosing my job or less income.  When I would walk into a video control room and had to repair a system failure I had learned to just keep at it, never quit.  I also learned to attack any problem by first analyzing all the possible possibilities and attacking each one in order of probability.  I liken this to circling or walking around a problem.  Some times I actually do walk around to get different views of what I have to deal with.  I even extend this to my technology studies.  I might get a book on a subject I am interested in but if it is difficult to understand, I will buy the item to use it, put together a kit if appropriate, look for other learning options so that I effectively circle the problem and attack it from multiple views.  I think this is because I am not too bright and I need to get the subject into my brain by multiple means.  This article, I hope, sends you a lesson.  Try to not give up.  Your self esteem and what other people think of you and possible job security depend upon this.  It is not bad to be afraid some times.  Sometimes fear is a motivator.  For me it definitely is.