You’ve got problems. Challenges. Difficulties. You try different marketing techniques but they don’t work. Or they take up too much time. Or you hate doing them.

You’ve got clients who drive you crazy. Your rent has gone through the roof. You can’t find decent employees.

You work hard, you do good work, but the bigger cases and better clients seem to elude you.

Practicing law is a lot harder than you thought, or harder than it used to be, and you want things to change. You want it to be easier.

No, you don’t. Stop wishing for what you don’t want.

If it was easy, you would earn less. You are well paid because you’re able to do things other people can’t do.

When I was 16 I had a summer job as a stock clerk in a department store. Although it was physically demanding and I worked long hours, the job was easy. That’s why it paid minimum wage.

Stock clerks don’t have to solve difficult problems or make difficult decisions. They don’t have to worry about marketing or hiring people or making overhead.

They show up, do the work, and as long as they don’t screw up too much, they continue to have a job. But they will never earn much or have the opportunity to do great things.

Because the job is easy.

Building a law practice? That was hard. The hardest thing I’ve ever done. But because it was hard, it forced me to get better. I had to learn how to bring in business, hire and manage people, keep clients happy, work with other professionals, and a host of other things that professionals have to do.

Because it was hard, I had the opportunity to have a prosperous career.

Thank God it was hard.

Every great opportunity comes with problems and challenges. If you’ve got them, be thankful.

Jim Rohn said, “Don’t wish that it was easier, wish you were better”.

Well, don’t just wish it. Do something about it. Work on your skills. Sharpen your saw. Do the things you don’t want to do.

Don’t run from challenges or wish they didn’t exist. Seek them out and let them make you stronger.

Learning how to market my services was a challenge. Here’s how I got good at it.

The other day, someone posted the following comment on chess.com:

“Chess is a cruel game, in that a player can spend an entire game building up a won position, and then throw it all away in a moment of distraction.”

If you play, you know this is true. You must never allow yourself to be distracted. You must never take your mind off the game.

This is also true of a law practice.

A law practice has many moving parts and they must be kept in good working order. A lawsuit, an ethical charge, the loss of a key client–can cause your castle to come tumbling down.

Lawyers have much to do, just to stay in the game. They must keep their library up to date, maintain sufficient insurance, timely file documents, protect their client’s data, hire and supervise competent employees, serve their clients, develop and maintain professional contacts, and continually attract new clients.

They must avoid neglecting their clients, avoid too much work and too much stress, and avoid taking success for granted.

Yes, it’s a cruel game, filled with risk, but also the thrill of the win. And that’s why we play it.

Get your marketing game on: here

 

You’ve got a goal. And a plan. You’re working hard but your plan isn’t working.

Things are taking too long. There’s too much pain. Too many detours, too many mistakes, not enough victories.

Maybe your plan is flawed. Maybe all your hard work won’t get you where you want to go. Maybe you need a new plan.

Yes, but:

It takes time. I need to keep going.

What if you don’t?

It’s not supposed to be easy.

What if it is?

I’ve invested all this time and money. I can’t change course now.

What if you could? What if you should?

I need to do this right now so I can do what I really want later.

What if that’s not true? What if you could do what you want now, and keep doing it later?

What if instead of trying to make things happen you let go and let them happen? What if instead of pushing and struggling you relax and let it be easy?

Chew on this, Kimosabe:

Be stubborn with your goals but flexible about how you get there.

If you need a new marketing plan, try this

At half-time, I thought, if Atlanta can score 21 points in the first half, New England can do the same in the second half, and win. That’s the way The Pats have to look at it. There’s a lot of game left.

Yeah, I’m so smart I turned off the game early in the fourth quarter and missed the comeback of the century.

I thought it was over. No time left. Too big a deficit. But it wasn’t over. Because it wasn’t over until it was over.

So, is that it? Is the lesson to never give up, no matter what? Keep fighting no matter how bad things look?

Yes.

The game isn’t over, the election isn’t over, the trial isn’t over until its over (and you’ve exhausted all appeals).

Never give up. Never give in.

Now, it’s easy to give up when nobody is watching. All those projects you’ve started but never completed, all those goals that were quietly swept under the rug. When you’re the only one who knows, giving up is no big deal.

So if you want to win, make sure lots of people know.

There are those who say we should never share our goals or plans with others, that we should keep them to ourselves. Telling others, they say, puts too much pressure on you to perform and causes you to mess up.

But it is precisely that kind of pressure that leads to great victories.

When hundreds of millions of people are watching you, cheering you, counting on you, that’s when you do the impossible.

Go public with your plans. Share your goals. Be accountable. Take the chance that you will mess up. Because in this way, you will summon all that you have and accomplish things you might otherwise never accomplish.

There’s a related lesson, one that Atlanta missed, and that is assuming you’ve won before you’ve won. The Falcons took the win for granted and blew it. As Lost in Space’s Dr. Smith would put it, “Oh the pain”.

Never give up, and never celebrate before all the beans are counted. Because it ain’t over ’til it’s over.

What’s your goal? How many referrals are you going to get this month?

Relax. You don’t need to know everything. You’ve got some goals, or you know the general direction you want things to go, and that’s enough.

You don’t need a detailed plan. You’ll figure things out as you go along.

I say this from the perspective of someone who usually wants to know everything. Over the years, I’ve had to fight my need to know because, frankly, it has held me back.

Many of my biggest accomplishments began on a lark. They weren’t well-planned or even given much thought.  Something sounded good and I went for it.

Sometimes they worked out, sometimes they didn’t, but the net result was that a lot of good things happened for me that I’m sure would otherwise have never seen the light of day.

Do yourself a favor. Take a look at your project list or your someday/maybe list, or reach into your subconscious and choose something you’ve thought you’d like to do but have continually put on the back burner.

Choose something that excites you. Something that would make you leap with joy if you could actually do it. Something that has seemed impossible or the timing hasn’t been right or something you’re not sure you are capable of doing.

Don’t spend a lot of time on this. If you’re not sure, choose something that scares you.

When you’ve got it, push aside your doubts and questions and start doing it.

You don’t need to know what’s next, just take the first step.

You may not succeed. You may give up before the day is done. You may realize that you really don’t want it. But if you don’t start, you’ll never know.

If you do start, you might continue. And accomplish something that completely changes your life.

Referrals rock. Here’s how to get more