Lessons on Happiness and Success

Via David C. Maister's blog, here are some observations that are well worth your time even if you are not an attorney:

The commencement address by Stephen C. Ellis on how to be a happy (and successful) lawyer. An excerpt:

Trust yourself. You are a very bright person or you wouldn’t be here today. I think among the most important conclusions I came to as a young lawyer was that if I didn’t understand something, it was because the thing in fact didn’t make sense, not because I was stupid. Most of the times I’ve found myself in hot water it’s because I let a conversation continue past the point where I understood what was being said. And virtually every time I would say “stop, I’m not following this,” someone would come up to me after the meeting and say “Boy I’m glad you said that. I had no idea what we were talking about.”