I remember the moment perfectly.
I was standing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, looking up at the grand marble columns, feeling the weight of history in the air.
I was about to interview for one of the most prestigious positions a law school graduate could ever get—a clerkship with a Supreme Court justice. This wasn’t just a job interview. It was a golden ticket. A path paved with recognition, influence, and, frankly, an enormous post-clerkship signing bonus.
For an hour, I sat across from the justice in his chambers discussing legal theory, my experience, and our shared interests.
Usually, after interviews, I replay every word I said, every answer I could’ve framed better.
Not this time. I felt confident. This was it. I had nailed it.
You can probably guess what happened next: I didn’t get the job.
It was crushing. The kind of loss that feels personal—like the universe is slamming a door in your face just to remind you who’s in charge.
This wasn’t just any job. This was the job—a dream I had nurtured for years, the pinnacle of everything I had worked toward in law school. I sobbed for hours.
That single event changed the trajectory of my life—for the worse, I thought at the time.
Now, I know it changed it for the better.
If I had gotten that job, my entire career trajectory would have been different. I would probably still be practicing law. You might not even be reading this blog post right now.
And because I didn’t get that clerkship, I ended up at a specific bar in Chicago at a specific time—where I met my wife.
Here’s the thing: Loss feels final. It feels like failure. But often, it’s just a course correction disguised as disappointment.
Losing something doesn’t always mean you’ve lost—it can mean you’re being set free. Life has a way of redirecting us, even when we’re kicking and screaming against the turn.
You think you’re being rejected. You’re actually being rerouted.
You think you’re losing something. You’re actually making space for something better.
But the magic becomes visible only in hindsight.
So if you’re in the middle of a loss right now—if you didn’t get the job, if the relationship ended, if the door slammed in your face—I want you to hold on to one thing:
This might not be a loss at all.
It might be the exact intervention you need, the redirection that saves you from a life that wasn’t meant for you.
You may not have gotten what you wanted.
But maybe—just maybe—you’re about to get exactly what you need.
Related
Bold
