Bradley Bailyn - A Great Brother

Bradley Bailyn is my brother and a person whose good will has made a huge difference in my life.

After graduating Columbia University, I went directly to law school, for no other reason except that I didn’t know what else to do.  At the same time I was in law school, I was working on my first novel.  I had always been successful at anything I put my mind to, and I thought my current endeavors would be no different. 

However, law school bored me and I ended up dropping out after the first semester.  At the same time, a friend of mine who had promised to help get my book published faded out of the picture.  I was left without a clear path.  For the first time in my life, I acknowledged the possibility of failure.

“What if all these big dreams aren’t going to happen after all?” I thought to myself.  “I’m not going to be a lawyer.  Writing is a gamble.  So what will I do?  How will I give myself security?”

I decided to put my career decision on hold and continued to write in the meantime.  This was one of the hardest periods of my life because it seemed like everyone in my life, even those who were close to me, discouraged me from writing.  They told me to get a job, to do something realistic.  Of course, my feelings were hurt.  The pressure on me was mounting.

I never considered opening my own business until my brother Bradley mentioned it to me right around the same time I left law school.  He had just passed the Bar and was looking to do something productive with his law license.  He asked me if I wanted to start the family business we had mentioned periodically throughout the years.  He had saved over $20,000 from his job at a legal research firm, and said that we could use it as start-up capital.

Of course, I had no money at all and couldn’t contribute.  But Bradley didn’t make me feel like I was less than a partner.  We got a tiny office together and he practiced law for a few months while I tried to start an online company.  After a few weeks of trial and error, I started a college essay editing service that began making some sales.  Soon the service was doing well enough that Bradley began to consider leaving his law practice to join in on my comparatively less-stressful business. 

In short, our company took off quickly and grew into a much larger business.  After the first year, we were able to repay Bradley the start-up capital he initially laid out.  Now, we’re both financially independent and we even recently purchased our first homes.  None of this could have happened if it weren’t for Bradley’s willingness to invest his hard-earned money, and his faith, in me.  Thank you for believing in me, Bradley.  As you can see, your investment paid off!