The Inimitable Fulfillment of Serving the Public (Part I of II)

I am an unabashed capitalist. I have helped mega-corporations raise billions of dollars. I’m an investor who shows little interest other than stock prices. I’m unapologetic in my pursuit of money and I don’t particularly think there’s anything wrong with that.

Yet the greatest job fulfillment I ever felt came when I worked in state government for one year right out of school, as a law clerk under a judge who worked tirelessly to pursue justice.

Financially, that job made little sense. After my clerkship ended and I moved to the private sector, I was given a special “clerkship bonus” which amount was, post-tax, larger than the entire year’s salary working for the government, pre-tax. Either my initial salary was too small or my subsequent compensation was absurd, but one thing was very clear: it’s far more lucrative to be in the private sector than in the public sector.

But the public sector can give one thing that private sector can’t, and that’s the fulfillment that comes from serving the public.

When I worked as a law clerk, I met many people who were in dire straits. I saw homeowners trying to prevent foreclosure on their homes and woman earning a minimum wage fighting off a lawsuit from a prior employer. These were citizens with serious legal issues who were in need of desperate help.

For one year, I got to play a part in making a difference in the lives of these people. What the legal system, much less I personally, could do to improve a situation that was already dire was limited, but my entire working day was dedicated to hearing about and trying to resolve the challenges of people who were struggling to go about their lives. In such an environment, it was hard not to be inspired by a sense of mission.

In the years I’ve spent in the private sector since then, I’d worked to ensure that investors are protected and helped distressed companies raise capital so they can survive, but I never came close to achieving the sense of fulfillment that I felt during the year of the clerkship.

And that’s a feeling I really missed.

(Continues to Part II)