I get asked so often, especially by young candidate attorneys or attorneys what it takes to succeed.  I really believe that the answer is simple and it is hard work.  Yes, you have to be reasonably clever, yes, you need to have a good sense of logic and yes, you need to communicate well with people, but there is nothing that cannot be achieved if you work hard.  I think the biggest problem these days is probably what most people consider by working hard really is not working hard.  They have not done the research to read that the CEO’s of most international companies are working 80 to 100 hours a week.  They think working Monday to Friday from 8.30 am to 5pm and taking a lunchbreak is working hard.

I am not saying that that is not working, but doing just 40 hours a week is never going to get you to where you want to go, and some people are not even logging up 40 hours a week but are doing less.  If you want to dedicate yourself to success, if you want to get ahead of the pack, I really believe the absolute minimum you need to be doing is 50 hours a week and quite honestly I would normally do about 60 hours a week.  I don’t think that there is anything wrong, or that my weekend has been taken away from me, when I spend 3 or 4 hours on a Saturday on work, nor when I spend another 4 hours or so on a Sunday working.  My staff members are used to getting e-mails from me that is sent at all times, but most people will never reply to you after hours when you send the e-mail, even if Amazon.com and modern companies expect you to, and I await my answer patiently until 8.30am on Monday.  I don’t believe in a modern wired world if you are making people wait until 8.30am on a Monday to reply to their e-mail that you truly have what it takes to get ahead in any event.  You have to be available around the clock, and while you don’t have to answer something at 11pm on Sunday night, an e-mail that you received, for example, on Friday evening at 7pm should not really be waiting until Monday at 8.30am to have its first acknowledgement.  Even if you don’t want to reply to it in full, but give a brief reply earlier, I think that that is quite possible.  At the end of day, as I say, it is about success and not everybody aspires to the same levels of success and likewise I don’t expect everybody, including my own staff, to have the same standards as me, but for the people who ask, the answer is hard work and I think answering all your e-mails, around the clock and when you can, and tossing in 50 to 60 hours of work a week are the basics.