Life Lessons I Learned From Harry Chapin

Developing the Next Generation of Rainmakers Life Lessons I Learned from Harry Chapin For those of you who are young lawyers, you likely saw the headline and thought: Who is Harry Chapin?(Click to find out). He is a singer who inspired me early in my adult life and continues to inspire me today. Even if you are a young lawyer who never heard of him, you probably know his most famous song: “Cat’s in the Cradle.”  It is about a father who is too busy with work to  be present for his son’s birth and too busy with work to play  catch with his son. Later, the son has his own family and is too  busy to bring the family to visit his mom and dad. The father  laments: As I hung up the phone, it occurred to me, He’d  grown up just like me. My boy was just like me. Through that  song, I determined I would always make time to be with Jill  and we would regularly have special father-daughter times. I learned from another Harry Chapin song: “Dreams Go By.”    It is about a couple who has dreams while in school,  but they must wait to pursue them. They get married and  decide to have children first. Later when they are getting ready  to pick up their grandchildren, they lament: But I guess our  dreams have come and gone. You gotta dream when you are  young. From this song, I learned to have big dreams and not  to put off trying to accomplish them. After Jill was born, I  decided to take control of my future. Much to the chagrin of  my partners who wanted nothing more of me than to litigate  their clients’ cases, I decided I would focus on construction law  and issues faced by highway and bridge contractors. My career  dream was to become the best transportation construction  lawyer in the United States, and I developed a plan to pursue that dream. I learned from the way Harry lived.  Harry was one of the first to raise consciousness and funds to change the world. Some  singers would sing at one benefit, but not Harry. It is reported  that he contributed the proceeds from 130 of his more than  200 concerts each year to help the cause.  He was on his way to perform a free concert in 1982  when he was killed in an automobile accident. So, learning from Harry Chapin ask yourself these questions: P.S. I have six copies of DVD featuring Harry Chapin in concert and his family talking about him. Here is a link to one of my favorite parts that I watched yesterday for inspiration. “Yes, we’ll all get together again and again” : If you would like a one, let me know and I will send it on a first come first served basis.   I practiced law for 37 years developing a national construction law practice representing some of the top highway and transportation construction contractors in the US.