#6 - David Quintanilla: Ethics in Business, Education System Flaws, Law School

The Smart Alec Show

David Quintanilla is a lecturer of Business Law & Ethics at The University of Texas and co-owner of Cavanaugh Quintanilla PLLC. “Mr. Q” has served as a VP of Legal & Finance in the healthcare industry, CFO of his family’s business in the restaurant industry, as well as having worked within the non-profit space. He received his BA in Government at UT, his law degree from St. Mary’s University, and his Masters in Public Policy & Philosophy from the London School of Economics. Above all, Mr. Q is not only a friend of the show but an amazing person dedicated to making the world a better place.

Connect with Mr. Q here:

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-quintanilla-8b666784/

TRANSCRIPT:

0:00- 1:09 Intro

1:09 Mr. Q being Alec’s first and only Latino professor in college — what does that say about where we need to go as a country, state, community?

3:03 Mr. Q’s legal expertise in helping people create businesses and plan estates; Moving from working with the family business to discovering his passion for teaching

8:19 What’s important to know for someone trying to find what their meant to do?

• Difficulty of being young & not knowing
• Implications of school systems making kids specialize as early as 12 years old

15:38 Find what you’re good at & enjoy, makes you money, and what makes the world a better place — imagine a Venn diagram

16:16 The daunting decision 18 year olds are tasked with — what do I want to do with my studies and my life

• 17:30 Process of elimination and looking at intrinsic vs extrinsic motivation to aid decision making

18:10 Is there a problem with the education system steering kids towards specializing and pigeon-holing themselves into a specific career path as early as age 12?

• 21:32 Mr. Q’s perspective on how coming from places of privilege/ financial stability allow certain parents to tell their kids to go pursue happiness and passion

24:04 The utility and power of seeing different perspectives and being empathetic towards multiple

25:28 The world isn’t just black and white — there’s plenty of grey area. Why it’s important to ask what’s around the corner

28:29 The importance of unity as human beings despite differences in perspectives and belief systems

30:15 The toughest things Mr. Q teaches with regards to ethics and morality in his business law teachings

• Loyalty vs honesty
• Walking through everything
• Shitty answers vs a shitty answers
• “The best answer is rarely the easiest answer”

38:51 The effects of GroupThink, Conformity Bias, and Self-Confirmation Bias

• Benefits to thinking for yourself

44:23 The 50s-70s responding to hippie culture by saying “no everything exists within this strict box”; Boxed in ideology and the flaws of this way of thinking

• The benefits of putting ideas/ beliefs through analysis

45:40 Gone Baby Gone’s ethical dilemma: 2 tough decisions making us question where we draw the line in society on certain issues and who gets to make those choices

• 50:45 The importance of recognizing that our way of life isn’t the only way of life; Dangers of saying that “my world view should be someone else’s reality”

52:00 The slippery slope of making bad choices = “Incrementalism”

53:00 Alec’s journey of walking through the perspective of pessimism/ baggage and coming back to his belief in resiliency and optimism, how putting his ideology through the gauntlet yielded more confidence in his original belief than prior

• We must think of issues at an individual level AND at a macro level

58:21 What is law school really like

1:09:12 Dallas vs Austin

1:12:35 Characteristics of a good lawyer

• Integrity on integrity on integrity

1:14:35 Mr. Q’s 3 biggest motivators in life

Podcast info:

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Connect with Alec on Social:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realsmartalec/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/1alecalvarez
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thesmartalec/

Recorded in January 2021