A friend emailed me recently, seeking financial advice. He’d just watched a video on our current economic woes and the bleak forecast for the future.

He’s in his late 20’s, a creative type (graphic arts, web design, dance, music), and intelligent, but not savvy about business or finances. He currently works part time and does some freelancing, and he is nervous about his future.

He asked for books I might recommend, so he can educate himself, and for advice. I thought I’d share with you the advice I gave him, edited and with a comment or two for attorneys.

Here is what I told my young friend:

• The best thing you can do is to own your own business. Don’t rely on a job, hire yourself. Yes, that’s risky and frightening, but so is being dependent on someone else.
• Do something that excites you, even if you don’t know how you can make money at it. If you’re passionate about what you do, you’ll do it long enough to get good at it and the money will find you.
• Focus. Put all your eggs in one basket. You can have more than one business [he has several interests], but only if they are related, or you start one after the first is successful.
• Employ leverage. Find ways to use OPM and OPE (other people’s money and other people’s efforts). If your income depends solely on what you do, you’ll never grow as big as you could and vacations and retirement will be problematic.
• Work at your business every day. Most people give up; you can stand out by consistently showing up.
• Give more than is expected of you. The more value you deliver, the more your business and life will be enriched.
• Go global. Use the Internet to offer your products or services worldwide. [Attorneys, if possible, don’t depend on just your local market. Can you get licensed in other jurisdictions? Can you create a law-related product (book, course, etc.) that can be sold to people outside your local market?]
• Don’t fear competition, embrace it. Your voice and style makes you unique. You can earn more by working with your competition than you could trying to beat them. [Attorneys, you don’t sell your services so much as you sell yourself. You are your brand and your brand is valuable.]
• Surround yourself with good people. You only need a few but choose them carefully.
• Don’t worry about whether or not you’re good enough right now. Study your craft, do it every day, and you will soon be good enough. Just get started. Teddy Roosevelt said, “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
• Don’t worry about the economy or fixate on politics. Don’t put your head in the sand but realize you can’t do much about it. I agree with Barbara Bush who said, “What happens in your house is far more important than what happens in the White House”.
• Think about what you want, not what you don’t want. You will attract what you think about.

A law practice is an extension of you. You are worth far more than you know.

Marianne Williamson said it beautifully:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.