A former corporate lawyer who worked up to 23 hours a day for weeks at a time on multi-million dollar deals has revealed she regrets “every minute” of her 16-year career.
Anjani Amriit said it was a condescending comment made to her as a teenager that led her to pursue a career in law.
She told her school counselor that she wanted to be the first in her family to go to college and was thinking about studying law or medicine.
“He literally laughed in my face and said, ‘You can’t be a lawyer, you’re a woman,’” Amriit told SBS. Knowledge on Tuesday.
“So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll show you.'”
Her stubbornness would have disastrous consequences: the long hours demanded by her high-pressure job eventually exhausted her physically, emotionally and spiritually.
“I hated every minute of it,” Amriit said.
“It destroyed me from day one. Working in corporate M&A law, my typical days for months on end on deals were 22 to 23 hours.
A former corporate lawyer who worked up to 23 hours a day for weeks at a time on multi-million dollar deals said she regretted “every minute” of her 16-year career.
‘I would literally fall asleep at my desk and wake up literally a couple of hours later.
‘My secretary would come in the morning and I would ask her to buy me a new shirt and blouse and continue working.’
Ms Amriit, who was speaking on part of a programme discussing regrets in life, said she eventually felt “consumed” by her role at the expense of her relationships, social life and happiness.
“I lost 19 kilos and I didn’t have much to lose,” he added.
‘I would run to the bathroom and have a panic attack in the bathroom and then go back to my desk and continue working.’
She said the job left a “black hole” in her core.
Another motivation for studying law had been to impress her family, although she was more interested in studying journalism or archaeology.
“I thought going to college and getting an office job was something I could do to make my family proud and achieve a life my mother and father didn’t have,” Amriit said.
‘My father was a pastor and grew up in Cyprus, so from those humble beginnings I thought it was a life choice that would benefit not only me but my family as well.’
Anjani Amriit said it was a condescending comment that led her to pursue a career in law.
But her role isolated her from her loved ones and although she earned ‘good money’, it never made her happy.
“Looking back, I regret wasting 16 years of my life, exhausting myself, almost killing myself trying to prove something to society, to my family, to someone I don’t know, and doing something that was totally out of sync with who I really am,” he said.
Ms Amriit eventually quit her job, sold her house in Sydney and left for India to “find herself”.
He now helps others find their purpose in life through motivational speaking and writing.
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