3 minsI became a lawyer almost by accident.
I didn’t grow up aspiring to one day be a lawyer or even have a keen interest in the law, although I wish I could say that was the case. The truth is, I wanted a profession where I could make a good living, so when it came time to make a choice, law seemed like a good fit.
In my early years, I quickly found that the idea of untold wealth coming to every lawyer is complete and utter fiction.
I followed a traditional path of working for other people to gain experience. Take the BigLaw job, work my way up, like everyone e
lse wanted to. Looking back, I was driven by an image perspective. That perspective turned out to be a really poor way to achieve what I really wanted, which was freedom. The same freedoms every entrepreneurial lawyer wants. Freedom of time, freedom of money and freedom from doing all the things you don’t want to do.
After several years of working for other people, I reached a breaking point. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I multiplied the hours in a week by what I could bill out and thought, “Wow! I could make a fortune starting my own practice!”
We all know the reality is MUCH different when starting your own practice, and it’s especially so when you don’t have a solid business model (or any business model). And it gets even harder trying to keep up if your current business model just isn’t getting you where you want to go.
As a first time entrepreneur, it’s way too easy to get caught up in the “doing” instead of thinking about what you’re creating. Every day you work harder, yet you get no closer to the very thing that caused you to start your venture in the first place.
You started the venture because you didn’t want to be captive. You didn’t want to be a prisoner to an employer and you wanted freedom for yourself, but instead you’ve replaced it with the tyranny of clients ordering you around.
Focus on The Real Question
You’ve lost sight of the real question. The single question behind everything your firm was created to do for you. “How do I create a firm that gives me freedom?”
Click here to get access to my free Law Practice Growth Guide that shows you how to grow your law firm predictably and create freedom for yourself.
Once you focus your firm around that, you canstart answering it by saying “A firm in which I have freedom is_________.” Now you get to make the rules.
Of course we have some boundaries. If you have a struggling firm, your answer can’t be “I live on the beach and do nothing,” because you haven’t built a business that gets you there … yet.
Eventually you’ll be able to, but you’re not there just yet.
You need to create a plan to get from point A to point B, and that’s exactly what we do in the Alchemy Mastermind Program. We take people from point A to point B. And no matter what, it always begins with a very important question: “What do you want your firm to look like?”
A Perfect Day
If you can’t picture what you want your firm to look exactly like, don’t worry. One exercise we do in my programs is called “One Perfect Day.” It’s an exercise about what your perfect day at your firm looks like and what your relationship with work looks like as the owner of that firm.
Focusing only on monetary gain sets up the wrong conditions for future success. So many lawyers get focused on taking a case that can bring in $10,000 today and never take the time to think, “How do I set up my firm in such a way to get the right cases that will be worth 10 million in the future?”
It’s hard to take the time to re-tool your thinking when you’re weighed down by bills and responsibilities, but those who take a step back and re-focus their goals see results.
Start asking the right questions, and take action on the answers and you’ll be on a new path tomorrow.
