Outdoor Boys Told Law Grads What No Professor Would

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]Man, some some people call me a survival expert. Well, as a survival expert, I want to clear up a common misconception. Survival is not something we just do in the woods.

[00:00:14]Something each and every one of us has to do every single day. And whether you're building a fire or gutting a moose or drafting a motion, we're just trying to survive as best we can with the resources we have.

[00:00:27]So, I would like to help give you some advice to survive whatever's coming next.

[00:00:32]And while I do not know what your future holds, I can tell you that the world is changing at a terrifying and fascinating pace.

[00:00:42]You know, so here I am, I'm 47 years old. I'm not properly old yet.

[00:00:48]And uh I've seen some crazy stuff.

[00:00:51]I remember watching the Berlin Wall come down live on television as a child.

[00:00:56]I remember hearing about the internet for the first time.

[00:01:00]I thought it was a fake. I thought I didn't understand that. I was an adult the first time I ever saw an email. I was married when 9/11 happened. And the year before I went to law school, uh this thing called YouTube was invented.

[00:01:13]I was practicing for 3 years before I ever got my first social media account.

[00:01:17]I've seen seven US wars, six recessions, and I've survived one global pandemic so far. I'm only 47.

[00:01:27]I don't know what the next 40 years holds for you.

[00:01:34]But I doubt any of us are going to get through it without seeing terrible and amazing things.

[00:01:42]We don't know what these changes are going to be, but we do know they're coming.

[00:01:48]You need to be ready to grab the opportunities that are going to come in this changing world.

[00:01:54]And you need to be ready to survive the storms.

[00:01:57]And the best survival advice I can give you is very pragmatic.

[00:02:03]I would say save some money.

[00:02:07]It's pretty simple.

[00:02:09]But it's not. The best The most important things are often simple but hard to do.

[00:02:15]Money is freedom. Money is power. Money is flexibility.

[00:02:19]When change happens, those people who can afford to adapt can prosper and take advantage of those opportunities.

[00:02:26]And those who cannot afford to be flexible get crushed.

[00:02:32]I want to share a little bit of some experience from my life with this. When during the third year of law school, 2008, the US housing market imploded. 16 million homes were foreclosed.

[00:02:47]About the unemployment rate was twice what it is today.

[00:02:51]Law firms across the country were closing. And when I sat in those seats, one out of three law students didn't go on to get law jobs.

[00:03:01]Okay, I I was clerking for a firm that had 35 attorneys. And when a 3 months before graduation, I was laid off and that firm was a solo practice.

[00:03:10]Uh by the time I sat for the bar, I was in panic mode. I put out 3,200 resumes to law firms and lawyers across the country.

[00:03:18]I got 15 job interviews and no job offers. I remember driving to Boynton Beach, Florida, because there was an associate an entry-level associate position advertised. And I remember interviewing for this. And the partner points out the door at a well-dressed professional woman in her 50s who was being trained to make copies and run the coffee machine. She goes, "See that woman there?" I go, "Yeah." She goes, "That's our new receptionist. She's a licensed attorney with 20 years of experience.

[00:03:47]300 people applied for her job.

[00:03:50]Many of them licensed attorneys. Why do you think you deserve to get an associate position?

[00:03:58]And I looked her dead in the eye and said, "Because I am very very good-looking."

[00:04:06]Go big or go home, right? You know, I I did not get that job. I did not I did not get that job. Uh I couldn't back it up. I couldn't back it up. But, uh But, I walked away from that convinced that it was going to be easier to steal people's clients than it was to get a job.

[00:04:26]And so, I said, "I'm going to start my own law practice." October 2009, I got my law license.

[00:04:31]The ink wasn't dry and I had my law firm started. The very next day I was open for business. I worked for 13 months for free.

[00:04:40]I spent $15,000 on multiple failed advertising campaigns trying to drum up business.

[00:04:48]And on the 14th month, it all changed.

[00:04:51]My final advertising campaign blew up.

[00:04:55]Brought in tons of clients. My law firm exploded and it made my family very well-off.

[00:05:02]And the very first employee I had was a a guy from my graduating class. And and he had good GPA. He'd he'd been on the journal and internships and, you know, everything I wasn't. And I was graduated second from the bottom of my class and I was the the the weird dude who was always fishing instead of studying and I was a hot mess as a student. And and, uh And I I I've spent a lot of time thinking about the the differences in trajectory.

[00:05:37]And I'm convinced it's not skill and it's not intelligence that prevented him from doing what I did. It was It was money.

[00:05:46]I had money in the bank and he had debts.

[00:05:49]I could afford to work for free for 13 months. I could afford to take risks. He could not.

[00:05:58]>> [sighs] >> It I have often reflected on this.

[00:06:08]I was very fortunate to have money at that period of time.

[00:06:12]I'd been given an opportunity to work construction in Alaska and raised by good people who taught me to save and invest aggressively and I was fortunate enough to marry a wonderful woman who also worked hard and saved money.

[00:06:26]Not everybody is that fortunate.

[00:06:29]I cannot honestly say I deserve the success I have.

[00:06:34]All I can say is that I did not waste the opportunities that were gifted to me.

[00:06:41]If you are fortunate enough to be given a chance to earn some money and to survive out there, please please do not waste that opportunity that you've been given.

[00:06:52]When you have money in the bank, you have options. When you are living paycheck to paycheck, you have two options. You work every single week or you go bust.

[00:07:04]People who are not saving money are one problem away from disaster and the only thing I can guarantee you about your future is problems will come.

[00:07:15]Now, there are a lot of things we cannot control. There are no guarantees in life. That is why it's so important to save.

[00:07:21]If you are fortunate enough to be one of those people that gets a paycheck, you have been given an opportunity that not everybody gets. Do not waste that opportunity.

[00:07:32]Now, what's the point of all this? Am I telling you you stop eating out a few times and life's all going to be great and you're going to be rich? No.

[00:07:39]No, I'm not saying that at all.

[00:07:41]I do not know what we are going to have to do to survive the next 40 years, but I can tell you that your odds of success are much, much greater if you spend less than you make and you save money aggressively.

[00:07:56]So much of my success was because of God, my parents, my family, and other people and things outside of my control.

[00:08:04]I was blessed with opportunities and the best I can say is that I didn't screw it up.

[00:08:12]I don't know what opportunities and dangers are going to come.

[00:08:18]But if you are fortunate enough to get a paycheck, don't you screw it up, either.

[00:08:22]Okay?

[00:08:24]Save as much as you can as quick as you can because some amazingly wonderful opportunities are coming your way.

[00:08:32]And if you're going to be ready to take advantage of those and to survive the storms, you're going to have to have something in reserve.

[00:08:41]So, good luck out there.

[00:08:44]I know you can do it.

[00:08:45]>> [applause]