We all struggle with in business and life, trying to carve a path and do our best. A lot of us feel guilty about taking time for ourselves and following our interests. Spending time “just reading” articles that seemed tangentially related to your industry, or tinkering with ideas that might never amount to anything concrete can feel like a waste of time. This reveals a fundamental misunderstanding about how real progress happens, both in business and in our personal development.

The truth is that curiosity isn’t a luxury you indulge when everything else is finished. It’s the engine that drives innovation, problem-solving, and the kind of strategic thinking that separates successful professionals and businesses from those that merely survive. When you tell yourself that reading broadly or exploring tangential interests is a waste of time, you’re not being disciplined or focused. You’re avoiding the uncomfortable reality that meaningful work often looks unproductive in the moment. The most valuable insights I’ve gained in my legal practice didn’t come from studying more case law or memorizing statutes. They came from understanding psychology, economics, and human behavior through seemingly unrelated reading and exploration.

Leaders who consistently make better decisions are inevitably the ones who follow their intellectual curiosity wherever it leads. They see opportunities others miss because of the breadth and wealth of knowledge gained through their curiosity. They read outside their industries, they tinker with ideas that may never generate revenue, and they invest time in learning things that don’t have immediate practical applications. This isn’t because they have more time than everyone else. It’s because they understand that curiosity is an investment in themselves and their business. They recognize that the connections between disparate ideas often produce the breakthroughs that define success.

The resistance to following curiosity usually comes from a need to feel productive in every moment. We’ve been conditioned to believe that unless we can draw a straight line from an activity to a measurable outcome, we’re wasting time. This mindset is particularly dangerous for entrepreneurs and business leaders because it encourages short-term thinking at the expense of long-term competitive advantage. The truth is that if you stop exploring or learning things that don’t have immediate utility, you begin to calcify. Your thinking becomes predictable, your solutions become generic, and your business becomes vulnerable to disruption by competitors who maintained their intellectual flexibility.

The most successful people I know have learned to protect their curiosity like a sacred priority. They block time for reading, for experimentation, for conversations that might lead nowhere immediately useful. They understand that innovation and success aren’t something you can schedule or force. It emerges from the intersection of diverse ideas, from the collision of different perspectives, from the willingness to explore without knowing where the exploration will lead. So the next time you catch yourself dismissing curiosity as a waste of time, know that you’re not being practical, you’re being afraid. Don’t be afraid to start something that might not work or to invest time without a guaranteed return. In business, as in life, the things that matter most rarely announce their value upfront. They require faith, patience, and the courage to follow your curiosity wherever it leads.

I had coffee with a managing partner last week who made an observation that stuck with me. He said he could predict which attorneys in his firm would become rainmakers by watching how they treated the receptionist, the mailroom staff, and the cleaning crew. It wasn’t about their legal skills or their pedigree from prestigious law schools. It was about something far more fundamental and telling about their character and long-term potential.

The principle of elevating everyone you encounter isn’t just feel-good philosophy wrapped in corporate speak. It’s smart business practice rooted in practical reality. In professional services, particularly in law firms, your reputation precedes you into every room, every negotiation, and every potential client relationship. That reputation gets built through countless small interactions with people at every level of the professional ecosystem. The paralegal you dismiss today might become a general counsel tomorrow. The junior associate you mentor could refer significant business your way in five years. The court clerk you treat with respect will remember your professionalism when you need a favor during a tight filing deadline.

I’ve witnessed this dynamic play out repeatedly in my practice. One attorney I know always took time to learn the names of security guards, administrative assistants, and IT support staff at every office building he visited. This wasn’t calculated networking; it was genuine respect for people doing important work. Years later, when he was pursuing a major client housed in one of those buildings, the security guard remembered him and provided insights about the company’s culture and decision-making process that proved invaluable in winning the engagement. Meanwhile, another lawyer I encountered consistently treated support staff as invisible obstacles to his important work. Word travels fast in professional circles, and his reputation for arrogance preceded him, costing him opportunities he never even knew existed.

The mathematics of professional relationships make this approach even more compelling. Every person you encounter knows other people, and those connections form an intricate web of influence that extends far beyond what’s visible on organizational charts. The bookkeeper at your client’s company might be married to a procurement officer at a Fortune 500 company. The court reporter in your deposition could be related to a partner at a competing firm who’s looking for co-counsel on a complex matter. When you consistently elevate others through genuine interest in their perspectives, respectful communication, and acknowledgment of their contributions, you’re making deposits into a relationship bank account that compounds over time.

The most successful professionals I represent understand that elevating others isn’t about being nice for its own sake, though kindness certainly matters. It’s about recognizing that every interaction is an opportunity to build your reputation as someone worth working with, someone who sees the value in all people regardless of their position on the corporate ladder. This mindset transforms routine encounters into relationship-building opportunities and turns everyday professional interactions into investments in your long-term success. Your calendar reveals your priorities, but your treatment of others reveals your character. Both matter immensely in building a sustainable practice and a meaningful career.

Constant and deliberate education remains the ultimate appreciating asset. Education is not a one-time transaction but rather a flower that requires ongoing nurturing, attention, and care to fully bloom. The more you learn, the more opportunity you will create for yourself and continue to grow.

The most successful business leaders understand that knowledge acquisition follows the same principles as compound interest. Each new concept mastered creates connections with existing knowledge, thereby exponentially increasing your knowledge. This compounding effect explains why top performers in any industry consistently take the time for deliberate learning, regardless of their already packed schedules. They remain curious, want to learn more, and know doing so will lead to continued success.

One misconception is that substantial education mostly happens when you’re young. This is flawed thinking that costs businesses in areas such as talent and innovation. I remember 60 year old retired doctor who started law school when I did. He could have dismissed going back to school as being “for the young folks.” His willingness to engage with complex new concepts led to a second career in law and as an expert witness. This gentleman could have been fine remaining retired and finding activities to fill his days but instead he came out of his additional schooling well ahead of those he was competing against who lacked his decades of experience with people, with the business of medicine, and what that experience and life had taught him.

Lifetime learning operates as both offense and defense. Offensively, it positions you to recognize emerging opportunities before they become obvious to the masses. Defensively, it prevents the obsolescence that silently erodes career capital in an era where the half-life of professional skills continues to shrink. When you think about succession planning, the most valuable team members aren’t necessarily those with the most impressive academic credentials, but rather those who demonstrate intellectual humility and learning agility, which are traits that allow them to navigate uncertainty with confidence.

Education, like a perennial flower, requires seasons of intense growth followed by periods of integration and application. True mastery develops not from passive content consumption but from the deliberate process of testing new knowledge against real-world challenges. This approach in which you learn, apply, reflect, and adjust creates professionals who bring both depth and adaptability to their organizations. It follows that it is a fundamental truth that in business, as in life, education isn’t something you complete, it’s something you become.

Countless professionals have sabotaged their own careers without even realizing it. They make decisions that seem logical in the moment, then spend years wondering why they’re stuck in positions that don’t fulfill them or advance their goals or career. The uncomfortable truth is that most career stagnation isn’t the result of bad luck, office politics, or a challenging economy. It’s the cumulative effect of choices that prioritize short-term comfort over long-term growth. When you consistently choose the path of least resistance, you become a victim of your own decision-making patterns.

The most common trap is what I refer to as “comfort zone creep.” Professionals accept roles that match their current skill set perfectly, thinking they’re being strategic. They negotiate for familiar responsibilities, seek out teams where they already know everyone, and gravitate toward projects that won’t challenge them too much. This feels safe and manageable in the short term, but it’s career suicide over the long haul. Growth requires discomfort, and when you systematically avoid discomfort, you systematically avoid advancement. If you take the challenging assignment you’re not quite ready for it will provide you with the potential opportunity to move past the person who only accepts work they’ve already mastered.

Another destructive pattern involves letting other people make decisions about your career trajectory. If you allow those above you to dictate your next move without ever articulating your own professional vision you become a passive recipient of whatever opportunities happened to cross the desks of others. Wouldn’t you rather be the active architect of your own career? This abdication of responsibility feels easier because it removes the pressure of choice, but it guarantees mediocrity. When you don’t advocate for specific roles, projects, or advancement opportunities, you signal to your organization and those around you that you’re content with whatever they decide to give you.

The financial decisions you make also create long-term career limitations you might not anticipate. For example, taking on lifestyle expenses that require your current income level eliminates your ability to make bold career moves. When your mortgage, car payments, and discretionary spending consume most of your paycheck, you can’t afford to take strategic risks. I’ve seen talented lawyers stay in firms they despise for years because they can’t afford the temporary income reduction that comes with switching to a different firm, a different practice area, or starting their own firm. They become prisoners trapped by their own spending choices.

The solution requires brutal honesty about your decision patterns and their long-term consequences. Start by considering the choices you’ve made over the past two years. Which decisions were driven by fear, convenience, or external pressure rather than your actual career goals? Identify the moments when you chose comfort over growth, and consider what different choices might have looked like. Then commit to making at least one professionally uncomfortable decision each quarter. Volunteer for the project that scares you, apply for the role you’re not quite qualified for, or have the difficult conversation with your boss about your advancement goals. Your future self will thank you for the temporary discomfort these choices create, because they’re the only path to the career you actually want rather than the one you’ve accidentally built through passive decision-making.