Taking a Long Break & Some Links

I finally managed to graduate from law School. You would think that since we’ve graduated we can relax now,but that isn’t the case. We still have Bar examinations coming up. So in anticipation of these exams, i will be taking a break from writing and blogging as a whole. You should be able to find me posting again by the end of the year or so.

Until then, here are some links to bloggers and websites who write on the same topics as I do:

LAW

• Theobenisms - a blog by a Law Clerk in the Office of the Chief Justice of the Philippines.
• Ateneo Law - contains updates on the legal world.
• Supreme Court - the ultimate source of law in the Philippines (well, aside from Congress anyway).

CAREER/BUSINESS

• The Brazen Careerist - a network of bloggers on millenials and careers.
• Employee Evolution - another blog on millenials and careers with a very strong emphasis on millenials. There is a great sense of community here.
• Penelope Trunk - the Brazen Careerist’s personal blog.
• Reflections of a Bizdrivenlife - a Cebuano technopreneur’s blog on business and life.

TRAVEL/FOOD

• The Unlonely Planet - the blog of my dreamgirl who is incidentally a travel columnist for the Sunstar Davao.
• The Awesome Planet - a blog on food and travel here in the Philippines.
• Rants and Raves - another food blog. Yes I like food.

That’s about it. See you all in a few months time!

How I Knew I Wanted to be a Lawyer

I didn’t.

Don’t get me wrong. When I was in high school I thought I was fit to be a lawyer and was even asked by a number of my classmates caught smoking cigarettes and who were about to be kicked off the basketball team if I could I find a way to get them out of the punishment.

I read through the student manual, and found that there was no such punishment as kicking off the basketball team.

I told them this, and although I thought it was sound advice and was prepared to argue that, they thought that they didn’t want to continue the “appeal” because their parents would get mad.

Although I didn’t quite succeed, I remember that I was thrilled going over the rulebook and manual and finding that particular loophole. It was lawyerly kind of stuff.

And even my high school prediction (there is a program during our prom where we mention the predictions we have for each student), people thought I would be a lawyer.

So in a way it was predestined. And in college I took legal management because I thought I would go on to law school. But by the third year of college I had gotten a bit disillusioned because I went to court a few times and it didn’t work out too well. I had found the system horrible.

So I went into education instead (it was too late to switch majors, I just concentrated all my electives in my third year to teaching) and went to Ateneo Grade School to teach.

I thought that was my true calling in life. And for a few years, as I switched between Beijing, Manila and wherever, teaching all the time, I was happy.

Then some personal stuff happened and my life plan was pretty much ruined at that point. But I remember talking to a friend from Indonesia about the law in the Philippines and saying it was so problematic, and how it doesn’t change. He told me that perhaps the best way to change the law and system is to change it from within. That never left me.

So one day while stuck in Manila and doing nothing (remember my world had seemed to crash at that point) I just took the Ateneo Law entrance exam.

I passed it. Prayed about it. And then realized that perhaps that was why God meant for me to pass the entrance exam. ( I had done NO preparation for it and had taken it on a whim, and didn’t take any other entrance exam). I was meant to be a lawyer. And so I on went to law school.

So in a way it was a confluence of many things that made me go to law school. A feeling of fate and faith. A feeling that God had prepared each moment of my life for this (I would not have survived law school if I had gone on to it straight out of college. No discipline and none of the skills yet like writing etc).

I don’t recommend what I did, because it was very haphazard. Law school is very demanding and is something that one should seriously think about before jumping in. I went into it unsure, but by the first year grew to love the work and the pressure, the feeling of changing the world through the law.

Admittedly that feeling has waned somewhat since I have to split much of my time between law and my dreamgirl, and my dreamgirl obviously winds up winning in the battle for time.

But I cant imagine doing anything else with my life now. Except being a lawyer.

Some Thoughts and Blogs on Entrepreneurship

I like the idea of being self-employed.

One day I hope to be able to run my own business, perhaps even run a law firm (whether as a partner or by starting my own remains to be seen since I am still in law school).

Entrepreneurship has hit the mainstream in a big way. Where once people preferred the protection and stability of a good-paying job, more and more people are now jumping on the entrepreneurship bandwagon or being encouraged to do so.

Of course, running a business isn’t easy. If it was, almost everyone would be doing it. And I guess that’s where the biggest problem is. Fear.

There is a lot of fear involved when one opens up your own business or start your own law firm or even just jump into your own sideline. There is a lot of uncertainty and a large chance of failure.

But that doesn’t stop most people. And it shouldn’t, because the rewards for going into entrepreneurship are amazing. A strong sense of self-control, possibly tons of money (if it succeeds) and an opportunity to do something you like for the rest of your life.

I know one day I’ll jump into the whole business thing myself like my sister did. But for now, I’m just biding my time, studying the law and trying to brainstorm for possible businesses.

Until then, here are a couple of great blogs and websites on entrepreneurship you should check out (in no particular order).

1.) Instigator Blog – the blog of the CEO of Standout jobs, which is a promising internet start-up.

2.) Pinoy Web Startup — a Filipino webstart up I discovered recently. Marie Casas, one of the founders of Pigmata Media, and the author of the Pinoy Web Startup Blog, was even featured in MoneySense magazine.

3.) Open for Business – a new blog by the editor of SME Insight which is published by the Inquirer. New but very promising.

4.) Reflections of a Bizdrivenlife – Wilson Ng is one of the earliest business bloggers I know and runs a successful computer business which distributes to Visayas and Mindanao.

5.) Go Negosyo - the brainchild of Joey Concepcion who is a strong advocate of opening up your own business.

6.) The Brazen Careerist – the ultimate startup for career bloggers and the like. Founded by Penelope Trunk and the Ryans of Employee Evolution, you should check out their blog posts on starting up a business. Really great stuff and offers a different perspective.

(Disclosure: I am a member of the Brazen Careerist Network but I read and enjoyed their blogposts on start-ups BEFORE I was asked to join. So I recommend their posts on a very unbiased basis.)

7.) Guy Kawasaki’s Blog - probably the ultimate web start up guy. He has founded a number of businesses and was even once connected to Apple as one of their tech evangelists. he has also written a number of books on technology and start-ups.

8.) What Would Dad Say - a great blog by G.L Hoffman, an American baby boomer who has successfully founded a number of start-ups. He has a great post on the 100 attributes needed to become a successful entrepreneur.

A Typical Day in Law School

I once had a friend ask me what a typical day in law school is like. Here’s a quick overview of one of my typical days (I picked a Wednesday), back when I was writing a column and juggling law school. The times may vary a bit but more or less this is how it went during the early parts of this semester.

Please note though that I am not the kind of person one would call studious. And I am no genius (oh how I wish I was!),but I do get by in school.

Wednesday
6:30 am — Wake up, get ready to head to school. Grab a quick bite if there is anything in the fridge.

7:30 am — Drive to law school.

8:30 am – Arrive at law school and find a spot to study (usually at the second floor of the Ateneo Professional Schools building).

11:00 am – Lunch with some of my studymates. If it’s a really heavy day I just grab a quick burger and coke and keep studying at my desk and wolf down the food.

11:30 am – back to studying.

1:45 pm – 15 minutes before class starts. This is around the time my classmates and I start panicking. Some of us start praying. Others just say “what will be, will be” and stop studying.

2:00 pm – Class time (Commercial Law Review). 2 hours of demanding recitations and inquisitions from our professor who was a former Bar Examiner.

4:00 pm – Class ends. One hour break before my next class. Sometimes I have meetings for group projects. Other times I have to meet a professor or research something in the library. This one hour can go really fast with all the stuff that has to be done.

5:00 pm – Civil Law Review Class. One hour of fast-paced recitations under a Professor considered an expert on the Civil Code. (He wrote 2 books: one on the Family Code and another on the Law on Obligations and Contracts).

6:00 pm – Class ends. Finally manage to breathe (Presuming I didn’t get called for recitation in any of my subjects.) Start heading home.

7:00 pm- Arrive home. Eat dinner and rest up.

8:00 pm – Reviewing for the next day’s class (Remedial Law).

9:30 pm – Call dreamgirl or receive a call from my dreamgirl. Catch up with each other. Can be anywhere from 30 minute chat to an hour long conversation. 30 minutes is the average.

10:00—11:00 pm – Start researching and looking through the news for a topic to write on for the weekly opinion column (for the Sunstar Davao).

11:00 pm – Write the column. Takes about an hour or so.

Midnight – Email column to Sunstar Davao editors.

Anywhere from 12:30 am to 1 am – Get ready to sleep. Read book, write in journal, or blog. Sometimes I watch tv and just veg out.

Asleep by 1 a.m. or so.

Note: Usually if something else comes up, I skip reviewing for the night or skip writing the column. Nothing fancy. On other days if I don’t wake up on time, I review in the house instead and just get to school right before classes start.

And yes this is a relatively light day. Some of my classmates have much heavier schedules because they have work or kids or are in dozens of clubs or something like that. Others just study all the time, every spare moment.

Each person’s schedule is different, but more or less one thing is the same for all of us. We all study.

Yes I know. Law students live pathetic lives.

Addendum: Blogger Michael Henreckson brought up the fact that I didn’t mention coffee in this post. He has a good point.

I forgot to mention coffee since it seemed like such a normal part of my day already. Nearly all my classmates have a cup a day as well. But yeah, Michael is right, coffee and caffeine is key to getting through a typical law school day.

The Bizness Blawg Banner

The folks at the Brazen Careerist were kind enough to make this Banner for this blog. They plan on using it on the Brazen Careerist site.

Cool huh? If you want to link to this blog using the banner, let me know. I would be more than happy to reciprocate. Happy Holy Week friends!