12 Minute Convos W/ Engel Jones

Life has always revolved around cutting through contradictions and overcoming challenges for me. Growing up as a Russian immigrant in Kentucky, I was at once a regular American kid and an outsider. In college, I was both a miserable pre-med and a thrilled anthropology major with a strong pull for film and literature. Arriving bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to New York after college, I entered a Ph.D. program in neuroscience. Lacking alignment with the experience, I hated coming into class and lab and loved building my first startup at the same time, a Jewish social network called...(wait for it) http://JuicyJews.com (still have the t-shirts). The program wasn't the right place for me and the startup floundered. I left after a year, becoming a paralegal while applying to law school. Family expectations that I'd get a grad degree weighed like a millstone on my neck. I worked my way through law school as an intern in insurance defense litigation and personal injury firms, a legal consulting shop and a hedge fund,