The Lawyer Who Wrote a Book About 30 Successful People

Editor’s Note: This post is written by the global head of Shearman & Sterling’s intellectual property and technology transactions group. It is part of a contributor series that expands on interviews he conducts on his site, Hsu Untied, which look at the human side of lawyers.

By Richard Hsu, Partner and Global Head of Intellectual Property and Technology Transactions, Shearman & Sterling

Today, my guest is Gillian Zoe Segal , the author of a terrific book called “ Getting There ,” which is a compilation of interviews with 30 incredibly successful people. Gillian holds a law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Here are some highlights of my interview with her:

[Scroll down for complete interview]

How the project started . Gillian wrote this book because she felt there is a common misconception that successful people had a “smooth and easy ascension to the top” but it turns out that nothing could be further from the truth. The best way to to be inspired to reach one’s potential, she thought, would be to hear stories from actual people — because it’s not easy for anyone.

How she conducted her interviews. Gillian conducted each of the 30 interviews in person and personally photographed each person. Gillian edited each interview down to a few pages into a narrative and essentially “wrote the book she would want to read.”

Her favorite interview . She says that choosing her favorite interview would be like trying to choose one’s favorite child, but she admits that it’s hard not to feel special when interviewing Warren Buffett , whom she interviewed at his home office in Omaha, Nebraska.

What makes an interview good . What makes any conversation interesting is how open the person is and it is often easier for someone to be open when they are at “top of their field.” Gillian thinks her guests opened up to her because she is approachable by nature and she came to each interview by herself without a big entourage of people.

How long the project took . It took 5 years for Gillian to do all the interviews and complete the book — she says it was a game of “resilience” to complete such a book. Gillian says growing up she never really had a mentor but after completing the book, she feels like she has lessons from 30 terrific mentors.

Here is the list of her guests:

[Image “GT COVER s” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/GT-COVER-s.jpg)]

[Image “Warren Buffett” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Warren-Buffett2.jpg)] [Image “Kathy Ireland” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Kathy-Ireland.jpg)] [Image “Frank Gehry” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Frank-Gehry.jpg)] [Image “David Boies” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/David-Boies.jpg)] [Image “Ian Schrager” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Ian-Schrager1.jpg)] [Image “Anderson Cooper” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Anderson-Cooper.jpg)] [Image “Leslie Moonves” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Leslie-Moonves.jpg)] [Image “Wendy Kopp” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Wendy-Kopp.jpg)] [Image “Graydon Carter” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Graydon-Carter.jpg)] [Image “Marina Abromovic” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Marina-Abromovic.jpg)] [Image “Laird Hamilton” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Laird-Hamilton.jpg)] [Image “Rachel Zoe” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Rachel-Zoe.jpg)] [Image “J. Craig Venter” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/J.-Craig-Venter.jpg)] [Image “John Paul Dejoria” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/John-Paul-Dejoria.jpg)] [Image “Jeff Koons” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Jeff-Koons.jpg)] [Image “Tom Scott” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Tom-Scott.jpg)] [Image “Muhammad Yunus” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Muhammad-Yunus.jpg)] [Image “Stacey Snider” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Stacey-Snider.jpg)] [Image “Helene Gayle” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Helene-Gayle.jpg)] [Image “Matthew Weiner” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Matthew-Weiner.jpg)] [Image “Jeff Kinney” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Jeff-Kinney.jpg)] [Image “Craig Newmark” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Craig-Newmark.jpg)] [Image “Nitin Nohria” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Nitin-Nohria.jpg)] [Image “Jillian Michaels” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Jillian-Michaels.jpg)] [Image “Sarah Blakely” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Sarah-Blakely.jpg)] [Image “Gary Hirshberg” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Gary-Hirshberg.jpg)] [Image “Hans Zimmer” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Hans-Zimmer.jpg)] [Image “Daniel Boulud” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Daniel-Bould.jpg)] [Image “Jim Koch” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Jim-Koch.jpg)] [Image “Michael Bloomberg” (src=http://hsuuntied.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Michael-Bloomberg1.jpg)]