What’s it like to take evening classes while working full time to expand your career options? In this episode of Career Relaunch, David Gulbransen, a former Software Startup Founder & IT Consultant turned Intellectual Property Attorney & Director of IT shares his thoughts on attending law school while holding down a full-time job, managing failure, and creating a diverse, portfolio career.  I also share some thoughts on the importance of investing in yourself.

Key Career Insights

* Returning to school to pursue an additional degree is a major investment of time, money, and energy. However, it absolutely can be worth that investment, especially when it opens up new opportunities to diversify your career and feed all your interests.

* Experimenting and exploring many options can help you gain clarity about what your true passions are.

* If you have a unique product, service, or technique you’re developing, you should take the time up front to connect with an IP lawyer to consider securing a trademark or patent.

* Investing in yourself to learn a new skill can be an incredibly powerful catalyst to creating change in your career.

Tweetables to Share

Resources Mentioned

* David talked about the importance of Patents & Trademarks, especially if you’re a small business owner developing an idea, product, or service.

* Here’s more information about Trademarks from Trademark Direct, a service I’ve used myself. You can also do a quick Trademark search yourself on Trademarkia to see if the name you’re considering is available.

* The US Patent & Trademark Office has some pretty good articles on Intellectual Property, where you can read about Patents, Trademarks, Servicemarks, and Copyrights.

Free Tool: Investing in Yourself

During this episode’s Mental Fuel segment, I talked about the importance of investing in yourself. For some help in doing this, you can download my “Investing in Yourself” Worksheet.

About David Gulbransen, Intellectual Property Attorney

David Gulbransen is a author, attorney and “IT” guy based in Chicago, Illinois. In his law practice he focuses on intellectual property issues (copyright, trademark) as well as information technology and business law, primarily with startups and small business entities. He’s also the Director of IT at the University of Chicago Law School. David had over a decade of experience in information technology and software development and is a published author with over half-dozen technical books under his name. Currently, he contributes a regular technology column to the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

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