CHAPTER 5: THE THREE LESSONS OF JOE FLOM By Kyle Uhlich Patrick Robertson Simon Un

STORY OF JOE FLOM  Poor boy  Dad worked in garment factory  Constantly moved  Got into Townsend Harris Public School  Then Harvard Law School  One of the professors told about a job at a new law firm  Law firm started as only 4 people  Flom became successful and then there were more and more lawyers

LESSON ONE: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING JEWISH  Religion was a big problem in work aspect  Many Jewish lawyers shut out of bigger law firms  Rejection = good thing  “White shoe” didn’t want to touch on certain cases  Needed Joe Flom and other Jewish lawyers  There was a need for representation in cases  Jewish lawyers had experience  made them successful  Proxy fights made Joe Flom famous

LESSON 2: DEMOGRAPHIC LUCK  Born in early 1930s = many benefits  New York public schools were the best in the 1940s  = more chances for unlucky future  = more chances for lucky future  Great Depression  WWI  Less babies born

LESSON 3: GARMENT INDUSTRY AND MEANINGFUL WORK  Family trees that started with Jewish garment workers  successful doctors and workers  Garment working mentality  A lot is expected  Business  experts  profit  money used for education

FURTHER QUESTIONING  I wondered why living in a certain specific place could affect your success so much.  Gladwell explains how Jewish lawyers’ parents occupation affects success.  He wanted us to realize that being poor and discriminated against was actually a good thing for Jewish lawyers born in the 1930’s.

FURTHER QUESTIONING  Wondered why white-shoe firms were trying to hunt down lawyers who were good at proxy fights  i.e Joe Flom.  Gladwell wants us to believe that lawyers who were considered useless to big firms rose to legitimacy after firms wanted to expand on business.  Gladwell wants us to explore how all stories of success have come from the world changing.

CONNECTIONS  Text-to-world  James Baldwin  Born August, 1924 Harlem, New York  Mother divorced father  Married preacher  Very poor

CONNECTIONS  How was he inspired?  Emile Capouya met Beauford Delaney  Emile gave James Delaney’s address  Finally visited, and it changed him.

CONNECTIONS  How do Joe Flom and James Baldwin relate?  Both born same year (1924)  Both suffered through poor early life  Both had random opportunity for inspiration