Law school is an environment that forces self-regulation. Either you discipline yourself and complete the work required, or you are removed for poor performance. Either you conduct yourself as a professional, or you are removed for failing to meet conduct standards.
Absences are unexcused. Late work is not accepted. Point blank.
Those are the standards: meet them, or be gone.
Once I applied those same standards to my own personal life, a major transformation occurred.
One of the things my dad instilled in me growing up was simple: If you say you’re going to do something, do it. Full stop. He used to tell me, “Excuses are tools of incompetence used to build monuments of nothingness. Those who use them seldom amount to anything.” There are many variations of that quote, but the message was always the same—no excuses.
When you hold yourself accountable and follow through on what you tell yourself you’re going to do, you are setting a standard for your life. And when you live by that standard, you stop tolerating people around you who refuse to do the same. Undisciplined, low-character behavior no longer has space in your life.
On the other hand, when you fail to follow through—missing deadlines, making excuses, or ignoring commitments—those small behaviors can compound. Over time, they calcify into unreliability and laziness. You become your own problem.
So yes, take yourself seriously. Set your standard and live by it.
And when others consistently fail to meet that standard, there’s no need for drama. Just quiet removal.
No excuses.