Turning Points
Today I’ve been thinking about turning points in my life – those events that sent my life in an entirely unexpected direction.
Most of those turning points have been the consequence of a totally unrelated decision, nonetheless a decision that would serendipitously change the entire course of my future.
One significant turning point was the day in high school when I walked into Room 357 and met speech and debate coach L. Day Hanks. Mr. Hanks encouraged me to join the debate team, and thereby set off a chain of events that had a significant long-term impact on my life. This included meeting my first wife, who also was also a member of the high school National Forensic League.
My most vivid memory in debate was competing against Lawrence Tribe, who I now see on TV as an expert on Constitutional Law.
We debaters were an egotistical bunch, and always thought we had won every debate – even when we hadn’t. But Tribe was in a class by himself – the best debater I ever encountered. I admired him even as he was skillfully skewering my partner and me. We were debating health care policy and Tribe’s partner had quoted Governor Rockefeller of New York. My partner replied that Rockefeller was not a medical authority. I still remember Tribe’s winning response. “We did not cite Governor Rockefeller as a medical authority, but rather as (pause for effect) a financial expert.” His perfect timing and delivery caused the audience to laugh.
Another turning point was when, at age 27, I volunteered to judge at the California High School Oratory Championships. Glen, the winning speaker, was outstanding, and I helped to pay for his trip to the National Championships. After he returned, Glen introduced me to Jim, who has remained a good friend for more than fifty years. Jim and I still work closely together every day on real estate acquisitions and dispositions.
Indirectly, through Jim, I met my present wife Daveen. She and I have been together for more than forty years.
These early synchronistic turning points have continued to make a long-term difference.
In 1967 I opened my first law office and applied for space in Century City. I was rejected because I had submitted a hastily scribbled personal financial statement. I applied again, this time with a typed statement, but before I was accepted, I leased office space in the San Fernando Valley – where I still live and work.
I conclude that we all simply have to accept the randomness of life, for better or for worse. My goal is to make the best of whatever situation I find myself in, and to appreciate all the exciting and often unexpected consequences that flow from each of the chance encounters and choices, both large and small, that have generated the turning points of my life.
As they say, “Man proposes, God disposes.”
Alan