Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
David Pivnick on the Worst Professional Advice He’s Ever Received 5-23-25
Fri, 23 May 2025
In this episode, David Pivnick, Partner at McGuireWoods LLP, joins the podcast to unpack some of the worst professional advice he’s encountered.
Chapter 1: Who is David Pivnik?
But far more important than that, we've got today one of the most brilliant colleagues I get a chance to work with, David Pivnik. David joins us regularly. He's one of our most listened to guests. And he's absolutely brilliant. Aside from being a valedictorian analyst, in law school, meaning he finished number one in his class, which is just incredibly difficult to do.
He also is well-read and he's well-opinionated on almost any subject under the sun. David, today we're going to take a question. You so often get from people in podcasts and interviews and discussions, you know, what's the best advice you ever got? What's the, you know, what did your mentor tell you? What did you read that was the best advice? We're going to take the opposite tack today.
Chapter 2: What is the worst advice you've ever received?
Today's discussion is David Pivnik on what's the worst advice you've ever received. And I'll add in some of my thoughts as well. David, let me ask you to tee it up. What's some of the worst advice that you've been given or seen people give over the years?
Sure. I mean, the two things that come to mind, it's a weird question, and I appreciate you having me on and following kind words about me after talking about your 7 million impressions and all your other accolades, which outshine all. But usually people, as you said, ask about what's great advice, what advice would you pass on.
Chapter 3: Why is 'good things come to those who wait' bad advice?
It was a little bit of a challenge when you said you might be asking me about the worst advice. But two things come to mind, and one of them is pretty well-trod advice that people dispense all the time, but I think it's not great, which is good things come to those who wait.
And then the second thing that came to mind, which is probably less given, but I've certainly heard a variety of times over the years, and maybe I hear it more than the average, is just try and fit in. Don't stand out. And I think those are just both generally bad pieces of advice in some ways for the same reasons. But, you know, the notion of good things come to those who wait.
I mean, first of all, I think that is an inherent excuse. And the people offering that advice are often offering it because they're about to tell you no, just something that you're looking to accomplish or somewhere you're trying to go. And so right off the bat, I think it's a bit of a,
huge piece of advice where it's usually being offered by someone who has a vested interest in the recipients of that advice waiting.
I think that is so fantastic. I'll take a different cut on that. This concept of good things come to those who wait. I'll give you two different thoughts on it. First is anybody who's been in any kind of business or trying to prove it anything knows that at the end of the day, Urgency is important. So you better bring some urgency to whatever you're trying to do. So I think that's right on.
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Chapter 4: How does urgency play a role in professional success?
The second thing is I remember a senior partner to me years ago who – when I was building a great practice back in the day, had said to me, you know, you ought to slow down. And it was sort of, in some ways, a very vested remark in trying to make sure that instead of keep on building the practice, that I kept on working for his clients. And so I remember it vividly and thinking like,
Well, that's not very good advice, is it? And it so clearly came from a place of self-interest. I thought it was fascinating. But I love this concept, good things come to those who wait, and not necessarily being the right advice. Go deeper on that. Tell us some more.
Yeah, no, and I hit the head on that example, and that is an unfortunate one. But I think it's also just generally, if you have things in mind, if you've got targets and goals, You need to be realistic about it. You can't just decide I'm going to accomplish, I'm going to make a billion dollars and then be disappointed the next day.
There's not a shortcut here, but the general notion of sitting around idle or waiting and just maintaining the status quo and hoping things develop, I just think is poor advice. In a career context, taking initiative, showing confidence, that you can be a leader, that you can take on meaningful tasks, that you can continue to progress is going to help you then progress.
I think there's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy in either direction there. If you keep waiting, you're going to just keep waiting. And if you try and take action, I think you're much more likely to accomplish those goals. And I think the second part of the other advice that I mentioned, bad advice, is the case would be in terms of just just try and blend in. You don't want to stand out.
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Chapter 5: Why should you avoid trying to fit in?
I think people hear that kind of advice at a corporate setting all the time. I've only worked at one of the law firms, but I felt that law firm, certainly in the office of the department I was in at that point, which was two decades ago now, so I'm sure it's much different, but I felt like they expected a cookie-cutter associate. And that's not me. That's never been me in anything I've done.
And I think it really put a ceiling for me on what I would be able to accomplish there. Because I was so focused on trying to look like everybody else. And I'm not like everybody else. And so coming to McGuire Woods, and frankly, working with you and Jeff Clark and others, who basically said, you know, we've got to work, but let you go run it, do it as you see fitting and trusted me
to navigate client relationships, navigate opposing counsel, navigate matters, allowed me to figure out how to do things well my own way, how to manage clients, how to interact with people, with judges, with opposing counsel, et cetera. But if I was just spending half my time trying to figure out how to be like everybody else, I would never have figured out how to be great at who I am.
And it's a whole hell of a lot easier To be yourself and to be true to yourself every day.
And so I really think that unlocks a lot in my career and my potential, frankly, as an attorney, but also in terms of developing business and building a practice when I was able to recognize I can succeed based on my merit and by being me rather than just trying to shoehorn myself into what other people are looking for.
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Chapter 6: What happens when you try to blend in at work?
And I think that's such great advice. It's such a great take. When I see people that are trying to blend in, what happens is they also just don't stand out in any way.
And so whatever you're trying to do, whether you're trying to lead, whether you're trying to build a practice, whether you're trying to do great work, if you're just trying so hard to stay in your lane versus trying to improve and show and and stand out, you can do so mediocre.
I remember there's an old Japanese proverb, and somebody had shared this with me a long time ago, like the nail that sticks up gets hammered down, and the concept being that you shouldn't try and stand out. And I think what happens is that in terms of actually trying to
build things and grow and do things beyond the mediocre, you got to be willing to fight through that and not live with that proverb of being so scared to stand out, to step up, to be the nail that sticks up, even though periodically you're going to get knocked down. I love that. That is an idea for bad advice. Good things come to those who wait and
And also this concept of just try and fit in, don't try and stand out. I think that is right on. David, any other thoughts you'd like to add there on advice you've heard over the years that just is really, it can be good advice, but generally to people like yourself and myself, it rings very hollow or poorly.
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Chapter 7: How can being yourself unlock career potential?
Not that sort of global in application. I know several years ago, someone advised you, you could beat me in a race. I think that was poor advice and landed badly for you, but that's not necessarily applicable to most of the listeners. So it's less of a global comment than a specific example.
Right, right. I mean, sometimes people will tee you up to take a shot at things and try and beat the fastest Canadian hockey player alive at 42. And you're absolutely right. That might have been bad advice, though there's always time for revenge and a comeback. No, I tell you, throughout one's career, you get all kinds of bad advice. One of the worst pieces of advice I remember was,
It's given in professional services settings all the time. It's given in college applications all the time. And it goes something like this. The concept in a Professional setting is, well, you want to work with everybody throughout the entire firm so that everybody knows you and so that when you come up for promotion or partner, you're broadly known and broadly thought of and stuff like that.
And this sounds so nice and so vanilla and so right, and it is the worst advice you could give somebody. It's far more important –
that if you're developing a professional career you are hyper important to a handful of clients hyper important to a handful of people that are totally reliant on you that you're invaluable to there is nothing good about being useful to 20 different people five percent of the time you want to be hyper valuable to a handful of leaders all the time to where if you're not raised you're not promoted
You're not treated right. They feel the pain. They want to make sure. No, no, we need David Pivnik. He's a leader. And if you work for a billion different people and nobody really relies on you, you never get there. It's the same thing in college resume or applications. The college counselors will say, we've got to put 20 different things down that you did in high school.
And when I hear people say you got to put 15 things down, 20 things down. It means that they were very shallow on a lot of different things rather than being deep in a few things.
I'd much rather have somebody that had gone deep in a few activities, student government, sports, chess, whatever it is, and their grades and their performance than having touched 20 different things and been sort of like all over the place. That's another, to me, one of the worst pieces of common advice given is that you got to work for everybody or be a little bit valuable to everybody.
No, no, no, no. You got to be hyper valuable to a handful of people.
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