What if you could time travel like the Flash?

Spoiler alert for those who haven’t yet seen or read it.

DC comic superhero Barry Allen, is the Flash. He is a meta human speedster with superhuman speed. The speed force allows him to time travel when he runs at the flash speed. He goes back and forth in the past and future and inadvertently changes the timelines (and later fixes them, to an extent).

What if you could go back in the past or in the future, and change something about your life?

Would you do it knowing it could change the course of your life as you know it?

It is tempting to think of it though, isn’t it?

Just imagine, if you could change something in your past. What would you change? Are there any regrets, any mistakes, anything you said or did that you immediately wished you could undo?

Most of us have regrets in life, it can be anything from relationships to the dream job interview you just blew up, or losing a loved one. We wish we could change something in the past.

It is wishful thinking isn’t it?

I have always tried to analyse any issue – personal or professional with all available information and then taken a decision. Mostly, I don’t intend to change much about my past, except maybe a thing or two, which could have been turning points in my professional life.

Being a first generation lawyer who did things by the book, I did make a lot of errors in judgement. If I had known what I know now, I would have definitely used my superpower of time travel to go back in time, and change certain specific decisive actions.

# My first regret- undermining the power of networking

Networking.

Of all the things, I learnt in law school – about law, life and more, I missed this important lesson. I was too engrossed in trying to learn things and boosting my resume with moot courts and internships. Even if you googled “Top 10 things to boost your CV”, you’ll find everything but networking! No one tells you the importance of networking right at the time.

In fact I struggled tremendously while job hunting as I was not sure how to approach the right connections and do what exactly! Should I be asking them for favours? Why will they help me in the first place? What could I offer that would make the networking fruitful? Where to begin?

All these questions haunt me to date.

Once a friend in a college workshop saved the heavy questions for the managing partner of a prominent law firm. She had researched them before going and knew that they had a blog. She pursued them to their car at the end and ended up writing articles for their blog while in law school! At the time I was like “What’s wrong with her, chasing important people to their car?” But now I know she was just more prepared and persistent!

I wish I knew back then how to reach out to more people through social media, conferences, social gatherings.

If I could time travel, I would have attended them all with a more informed and prepared approach.

You need to be able to offer something of value like a strategy or a plan of action on a recurrent problem. Or something they may need assistance on, like their pet research project, or a book.

You can also come up with ideas which creates the demand. Try and make an offer that intrigues them. Like the Godfather, make them an offer they cannot refuse.

# My second regret- writing too few articles in law school

In law school we develop an obvious skill set that most of us did not utilize enough – writing articles.

In my present job, while I write, I have had numerous responses from readers and a couple of job offers too, just from writing! If I could go back in time, I would make myself read and write more articles. It is the best way to build one’s expertise in a subject as well as getting noticed by the right people.

I remember writing very few articles because I was buried under the course load, assignments, assessments, moot courts, etc. I was trying too many things as one should. But if I had been more diligent with my time management and worked on my writing, I would have made so much progress.

You are researching for tests and assignments anyway, while in law school. You might just turn an assignment into a research topic or just write more articles for publications. The point is – just start writing articles as soon as you read this.

There is guaranteed exposure from this skill set and it also helps increase your domain knowledge because of the research involved.

I know many of you are thinking, “But I am working or studying full-time, where do I find the time?” Don’t worry. Read more books or pick up the newspaper, scroll down your news feed as you do everyday. Pick up a topic and write for an hour. Just one hour from the aimless net surfing, smoke breaks, office-gossip sessions, or any other unproductive activity. You deserve time out of your own life.

And you have the time! Trust me. Write one article and let me know how it was via email. I can help you learn more about writing as I learn it myself.

# My third regret- cutting down the long internships short

There is the time I went for a long corporate internship. I worked for about four months and was really enjoying the work, work culture, learning. I was getting a basic stipend, but the learning scope was so intense, I did not care. I had planned to invest as much time as needed to bag a job in the company.

But then life happened. My father was diagnosed with third stage liver disease. The only solution was to have a liver transplant which costed around 30 lakhs back then.

My whole life, my father had supported all my crazy and drastic life decisions. He was my rock and now he needed help.

So, I did the prudent thing and left the internship to hunt for a stable job with steady income. I did the right thing at the time. But in the long run, if I had managed to stick out the internship, I would have had a much better career graph with the necessary life skills.

Don’t feel too bad for me, I eventually landed decent jobs post that. In fact the current job that I have, is completely because I liked the revolutionising concept of the startup. This time around, I followed a vision – changing the legal education system as we know it.

These are developing courses that are trying to bridge the gaps in the formal legal education. We have media law course, cyber law course, business law course and more. If you’d like, you can check them out here.

These subjects are not delved into law school in practical details. These courses teach you practical knowledge with regular exercises and article writing. You will not be stuck in your comfort zone. I can vouch for that.

I may not be the Flash (regrettably so) and may not be able to undo the past. But what I can do is that I can shape my future, and so can you.

Find out which domain you’re interested in and get into it. Make time, set aside an hour a day, read more, write more, study more.

There are no shortcuts to success. But there is no sweeter thing than that either. Knowing that you made a difference in your own life and contributed to others, is an unparalleled feeling. Start making the changes now and shape your future. Life is too short to have regrets and wishful thinking of an alternate reality.

Someone wise once told me, “You’re the superhero that you weren’t waiting for”. Be your own Flash and change the past regrets, by working in the present and shaping your future.

So, just like Dr. Wells says, ‘Run, Barry, run’!