The Dreams of a Solo

Failure Is Not What We Think It Is

At various points in my life I have been asked or I have asked myself what my greatest fear is.  My response has almost always been "Failure."  I loathe the idea of it and it keeps me up more than anything else.  The problem with fear is that it tends to be irrational.  For one, my fear of failure kicks in at different times and for different reasons.  Most of the time I do not have a chance to define failure before it scares me.  That seems pretty bizarre to me.  In reality I am sometimes scared of something and I have no idea what that something is.  Is failure the opposite of succeeding?  What about failing due to lack of effort or no effort at all?  I presume that the latter tends to scare us less than the former.  The truth is we probably fail each and every day by letting opportunities pass us by.  The only good part is that we don't even realize our own failures in those cases.  But we manage to etch the memories of our attempts that ended in the opposite of success in our minds for all of eternity.  Some of you are failing yourselves right now as you read this solo blog at your law firm job as your solo dreams sit on ice.  The train will come back around someday, right?  I do hope you are right.

The hard part about failure is that it is little more than perception and that makes it very subjective.  One man's trash is another man's treasure.  Opening up your own law firm and bucking the BigLaw experience may well be failure in the eyes of some lawyers, just as the opposite may hold true from a solo's perspective.  Which one's right and which one's wrong?  That is the kicker.  I believe that only you or I can be that judge of that from our own perspective.  So I guess they are very possibly both right or both wrong depending on the unique facts of each case.  There is nothing like a good lawyerly answer to the age old question, "What should I be when I grow up?"  It depends.

Oh, by the way, if one of your last remaining threads attaching you to a law firm job is the "security" in having a "guaranteed" income, then I suggest you take a look at the post from Law.com titled, "Dechert Gives 13 Associates Layoff Notices."  Check out Rick George's post on his Sololaywer blog on the same story Law.com - Dechert Gives 13 Associates Layoff Notices for his take and a priceless recommendation to recession proof your professional life.

The Year in Review Before it Happens

The title of this post is an impossibility on its face, but considering the news and events in my little world during the first two months of 2008 I am comfortable characterizing the "new year" before it runs its course.  It also helps explain, at least to some degree, why I have not come close to reaching my posting frequency goals for this year so far.  You see 2008 came as if it were dressed as the month of March for Halloween.  In case that analogy is too cryptic I mean to say that the year came is as a Lion with news of imminent changes from all sides.  The first bit of news is in regards to the addition of my friend and fellow attorney to my firm.  The second bit of news is in regards to my wife's family, who currently live in the same city, Appleton, WI, as we do.  I say currently because the news in early 2008 is that my in-laws will be relocating to North Carolina this summer.  This is certainly not a unique development when viewed in a vacuum, but it is unique to me and my wife.  Especially considering that my wife is one of 11 children.  In fact she is the second oldest and five kids are still in high school or below.  That makes the move much more difficult for my wife and for me, since our decision to relocate to Appleton a couple of years ago was largely based on our desire to be closer and more involved in the younger children's lives. 

Putting all the emotional implications aside that brings me to the physical implications of moving.  The last month or so has seen many changes in preparation for the main task in the relocation process:  selling a house.  I was not blessed with a handyman upbringing and I will be the first to tell you that I am still not the most skilled craftsman around the house.  But, I owned and sold a house in Milwaukee and I currently own a house in Appleton.  I guess the joy of home ownership has allowed me to find time to explore various projects around each house over the last four years.   It also doesn't hurt that I truly enjoyed tinkering and working on these household projects.  So over the last four weeks I have painted three rooms, fixed some cedar siding, and patched a bit of drywall to help get the house in showing condition.  The good news is that the house is ready to show and it is listed for sale by owner as we speak.  I am not mentioning this to vent or to garner sympathy, because I do enjoy helping out, especially when it makes life easier for my family.  It has just been a busy start to 2008.

With all the non-business related developments taking up the lion's share (pun intended - see above) of this post, I would be remiss to not mention the law firm related developments that have also occupied a great deal of my time.  So far 2008 is shaping up to be right in line with if not exceeding expectations.  I had set a client and financial goal at the beginning of the year for the end of February in preparation for the addition of Nick to my firm.  I am happy to say that I have met both of those goals and we have started to transition him into the fold through a couple long-distance projects.  Being a numbers guys it helps me to maintain working budgets and financial models that I can routinely update and review.  That is also why I set goals relative to number and/or types of clients and finances. 

In the end I have no doubt that I will look back on 2008 just as the PGA Tour players look at Saturday during the Master's Tournament at Augusta National.  The players and the commentators call it "Moving Day."  I think it would be appropriate to rephrase it "Moving Year" in our case, but the meaning is still the same.  Life and my law firm have to keep moving forward even if it appears that chaos is everywhere.  I have found that the best compass during times where everything seems to be moving at a million miles and hour in different directions is a well-thought out business plan.  I have relied heavily on mine over the last three months and I anticipate that reliance continuing into the foreseeable future.  If nothing else it takes me back to a time when I could more easily separate the rational from the irrational.  Either way 2008 should be a great year.  And if my analogy is correct that would make next year Sunday at the Master's, which is where championships are ultimately won or lost.  It should be fun.