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The Hardest Thing For An Attorney To Hear

What do you think the hardest thing for a lawyer to hear is?

I’d love to offer a short and sweet answer to this question, but let’s get something absolutely clear here.

Lawyers Have The Wrong Role Models

We’ve inherited their business models and mindsets from the old guard. Mimicking models that have worked in the past is the smart thing to do, right?

We’re trained in precedent, and it works for our legal work, so it works for our business, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong.

Our current law practice models and mindsets are anti-entrepreneurial and pro-slavery.

In these antiquated models...

  • We think we must work harder and longer, up to 80-100 hour, weeks to be successful.
  • We think that our business is driven by our clients and their “crisis de jour” (which always seems to happen Friday evening, what’s up with that?).
  • We think that a good law practice puts clients first, the firm second, and the lawyer last.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Following the time-tested formula is nothing more than a time-tested fast track to slavery.

If you’re invested into building a law business that serves your life goals, it’s time to find new role models.

The question then becomes: What’s our alternative?

Featured Download: 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.

The You-Centric-Law Firm

I call it the “You-centric-law firm.” It’s a hard practice model for many lawyers because it embodies the single hardest thing for an attorney to hear.

“YOUR CLIENT ISN’T NUMBER ONE.”

Why is this so hard to fathom for most lawyers? Because the only indicator they have that their practice is healthy is what their clients think, feel, and tell others about them. This mentality keeps the reigns of a business in the hands of clients, always leaving you at their beck and call.

This is slavery.

The "You-centric" practice model is fundamentally different than client-controlled practices.

Priority number one is YOU. Your life goals drive your business. If your practice doesn’t exist for you, why are you doing it? If it’s some idea of social good, call a spade a spade and go work for a charity. Noble and all, but unless your business serves you, there’s no point in having a business.

Priority number two is your business. You work ON your business more than you work IN it. You are a CEO. Act like one. Get off the factory floor, and start running it like a real business. (Not sure how to do that? Stay tuned)

Priority number three is marketing. Your business is always marketing. Every day you’re not marketing, your business is withering. Marketing is what feeds the business. When you stop, your business starts to die, and it stops supporting you..

Priority number four is the client. The client should always be taken care of, but does not have to control you or your business.

Your client isn’t number one. They’re actually number four. And the sooner you understand this, the sooner your business serves your life goals and not the other way around.

There can be only one driver of your business, of the bus. And the bus won’t go where you want it to if you’ve got a few dozen clients pulling the wheel in different directions. If you’re not in charge, nobody is.

Raj Jha