Advice from Quintin E. Primo III, co-founder and chief executive of Capri Capital Partners, a real estate investment and development firm based in Chicago:
Q. What's your best career advice to young graduates?
A. Three words: leave the country. Get out of here. That's what I tell everybody — just go. I don't care where you go, just go.
Q. Because?
A. Because the world is changing. It is no longer acceptable to speak only English if you are 25 and younger. It's unacceptable. You have little chance of being successful if you speak only one language.
If you don't understand Islam, you're in trouble because Islam comprises somewhere between 1.6 billion and 1.8 billion people, and there are markets that are untapped that need to be tapped.
So you've got to get out of your front door, get out of the comfort and quiet of your home, and your safety zone, and step into a pool of risk where you have no idea what the outcome is going to be. Out of it all, you will have a much broader understanding of the world's cultures, and you will have a much clearer idea of how the world perceives our culture, and all the value, and the benefits, and the beauty of our culture.
There is nothing more important. I don't care where you went to business school. I don't care whether your grades were good or bad. You have to leave the country.
I think this advice applies to lawyers too. Yes, there remain areas of practice largely untouched by globalization, but not many.
The headline (Is Italy Too Italian?) is silly, but the article is a good read. It uses bespoke textile maker Luciano Barbera as an example of Italian business strengths and weaknesses.
(The sub-head, “From Taxis to Textiles, Italy Chooses Tradition Over Growth” is much more representative of the content.)
Posted inEcon & Money|Comments Off on NYT Does Italian Business
Adam Smith of the St. Petersburg Times delves into Jeff Greene's history. It's telling stuff about the would-be Democratic candidate for Florida Senate. Here's just one of many anecdotes:
Harlan Hoffman, 37, was in a Fort Lauderdale yachting apparel store in 2007 when he saw a help wanted ad for Summerwind.
“There were two people from Australia there who said, 'Oh, good luck with that one… . We're still waiting to get paid by Summerwind.' I should have listened,” Hoffman said.
The deckhand was shocked while buffing Greene's yacht and wound up hospitalized.
A boat's owner is supposed to take care of on-the-job medical costs, but Hoffman said Greene — whom he never met — told the insurance company he had never heard of Hoffman and that he didn't work on Summerwind. It took eight months and legal action that included affidavits from other crew members vouching for Hoffman and trashing Greene to get his bills paid.
“This guy Jeff Greene threw tons of money into new diving gear, but the crew's basic equipment — food and supplies — he didn't want to spend any money on. Summerwind has a terrible reputation,'' Hoffman said. “Mr. Greene's yacht is known to be a party yacht. When it went to Cuba, everybody talked about the vomit caked all over the sides from all the partying going on.”
Just what Florida needs in a Senator: contempt for the working man so deep that he has to stiff them.
Try to recall that “The mission of the Anti-Defamation League is to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike.”
Poor Kendrick Meek. He was husbanding his resources, expecting to coast through the Democratic Senate primary, when three problems ganged up on him.
The first problem was predictable: low name recognition outside South Florida. But there are ways of dealing with that if name recognition your only problem. (To the extent that there was also lingering animosity among South Florida progressives for Meek’s very weak support of South Florida 2008 congressional candidates such as Annette Taddeo, well that was just the cost of positioning Meek as a middle-of-the-road candidate who could win votes upstate.)
The second problem was less predictable: Governor Charlie Crist got hammered by Tea Party fellow traveler Marco Rubio in the GOP primary polls, so he decided to run as an independent. Between that and his grandstanding on the gulf oil spill, Crist sucked up most of the media oxygen in the race. Plus he started leading in the polls, winning many independents and even some Democratics (see problem one above).
The third problem is just gross: a sleazy billionaire named Jeff Greene decided to try to buy the Democratic nomination. It’s hard to exaggerate just how bad Greene is. Here are a few choice facts.
Jeff Greene has been a Florida resident for all of three years.
Jeff Greene is not really a Democrat. He’s been a Republican for much of his life, and even ran for Congress as a Republican in California 1982.
Jeff Greene made his billions betting that people would lose their homes in foreclosure. (Personally, I don’t hold this economic savvy against him — it might even be a positive — but it sure won’t win votes.)
Jeff Greene’s personal life suggests he is completely unsuitable for the Senate.
Jeff Greene spent a year living with famous madame Hedi Fleiss
There is a mixed message here. Neither a “meet Kendrick” nor 100% an attack ad, the spot tries to do both at the same time, and maybe flails a bit at both. And any time you have to pay money to say “Kendrick Meek is not part of a fraud case,” you are in trouble.
Given his lackluster record on progressive issues, Meek is a difficult candidate to get excited about; only the abysmal quality of his opposition spurs one to sympathy. Charlie Crist has to be laughing: if Greene manages to buy this nomination, people like me may have to vote for Crist, even though he’s as principled and as reliable as a weathervane, just to avoid getting a hard-core rightist in Marco Rubio. Or we may sit that race out. Either way, if Greene wins, then Crist wins.
Brannon P. Denning (Cumberland School of Law), Marcia L. McCormick (Saint Louis University – School of Law), & Jeffrey M. Lipshaw (Suffolk University Law School) have posted Becoming a Law Professor: A Candidate's Guide on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This is the Table of Contents and the Introduction to a forthcoming book from the American Bar Association. The authors provide detailed advice and resources for aspiring law professors, including a description of the categories of law faculty (and what they do), possible paths to careers in the legal academy, and “how to” guides for filling out the AALS's Faculty Appointments Register, interviewing at the Faculty Recruitment Conference (the “meat market”), issues for non-traditional candidates, dealing with callbacks and job offers, and getting ready for the first semester on the job.
It sounds as if this book will be a must-read for law job candidates as soon as it comes out, although the bottom line for getting a job couldn't be clearer: Write. Lots. And well.
Posted inLaw School|Comments Off on ABA to Publish Book on How to Become a Law Professor
