Hamilton Chan’s parents told him he could be a doctor or a lawyer. His “tiger mom” even had a mini breakdown when he deferred law school for a year to work for JPMorgan Investment Banking. He promised her he’d go back to law school after the year was up, and that’s what he did.
Years later, his investment banking friends were making millions of dollars a year while he was slogging away doing due diligence as a corporate transactional attorney... and his mom asked him why he didn’t stick with investment banking. But Hamilton tells us you can’t blame anyone but yourself for your life decisions.
And Hamilton did experience outstanding success as a lawyer — he graduated from Harvard Law School, worked at a prestigious law firm in Los Angeles, represented Kobe Bryant, and worked at MGM Studios. But, ultimately, his legal career hit a dead end. He realized that he had taken what he was good at and polished it to such a point that it became something he no longer enjoyed. At one point, he was skimming hundreds of pages of documentation and writing about 15 pages of memos every day, without any time leftover to even pick up a magazine or read a book on the weekend.
Entrepreneurship was calling.
Hamilton wanted to be able to pursue creative endeavors, practice strategic thinking, and get out of corporate life. He told his family that he was very unhappy as an attorney, and his sister suggested he be a salesman at the family business, Charlie Chan Printing. After his whole family erupted in laughter, his mom and my dad said they could actually use some help. Although he had no experience in sales, he thought he could figure it out. Plus, he’d get to make business decisions and be involved in an enterprise that carried a lot of meaning and history for him.
After working in the family business, Hamilton went on to launch a tech startup. Then Loyola Law School approached him to start an executive education program, now called LLX. Hamilton was responsible for co-creating the vision behind it and coding a brand new interactive platform to host it on. He also teaches a six week class on negotiating, and really considers his role at Loyola Law School to be the culmination of his life experience and a true labor of love.
Hamilton’s tips from his off-the-beaten-path career are:
-Learn to negotiate. You can leave a tremendous amount on the table if you are not skilled at negotiating.
-Satisfy your curiosity and try new things.
-Realize that the business world is at least 90% networking. Hamilton used to see the world as super meritocratic and believed that, if you just produced the best work, everything would work out perfectly. Now he says that might be true for K-12, but not for the rest of your life.
-Make conscious choices to do the things that we should. The brain does such a phenomenal job of making sense of the world that it constantly discards contradictory information. And that's what helps us stay in a bad relationship, job, or situation.
-Craft the life that you want. Hamilton loves being able to spend time with his two daughters and his wife plus, have time for recreation, and work on projects...
Ep. 155 - The AMRAP Mentality: As Many Reps as Possible - with Jason Khalipa
Ep. 154 - Honoring Your God-Given Talent - with Phil White
Ep. 153 - Made for More - with Leah Darrow
Ep. 152 - Couple Q&A: Your Questions, Our Answers - with Lisa Flynn
Ep. 151 - The Power of Profitable Conversations - with AmyK Hutchens
Ep. 150 - A Listing Ship Righted: My Dad’s Origin Story - with Mike Flynn Sr.
Ep. 149 - From Here to There: A Quarter-Life Perspective On The Path To Mastery - with Thane Marcus Ringler
Ep. 148 - Live a Great Story - with Zach Horvath
Ep. 147 - Give, Grow, & Let Your Gift Shine - with Philip McKernan
Ep. 146 - Approach Each Day Like New Year’s: Creating the Life You Want to Live - with John Brenkus
Ep. 145 - A Conversation with My Wife - with Lisa Flynn
Ep. 144 - Master the Key: A Story to Free Your Potential (Chapter One) - with Mike Flynn
Ep. 143 - Inside Out Health: Emotional, Physical, & Spiritual Healing - with Dr. Nick Hyde
Ep. 142 - Share Your WILDSTORY - with Marc Gutman
Ep. 141 - Out of the Fire, Into Inspire: Going All-in on Life - with John O'Leary
Ep. 140 - Righteous Impact: Putting an End to Human Trafficking - with Nic McKinley (#TheRealJackRyan)
Ep. 139 - Out of Darkness, Shine - with Ike Ndolo
Ep. 138 - How You Can Use the FBI’s Field-Tested Negotiation Strategies in Business - with Chris Voss
Ep. 137 - Life-Changing Lessons Learned by an Olympian & Serial Entrepreneur - with Eli Bremer
Ep. 136 - Imperfect Courage: Live a Life of Purpose by Leaving Comfort and Going Scared - with Jessica Honegger
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