Practice Management

I was reading Rick Georges Future Lawyer, which directed me to the post by Michael Wade of Execupundit, who writes about his difficulty defining himself as a success.

Often I do not feel like a success, and often that get in the way of my wellbeing.  This is not necessary because I, and you, can define success any old way we wish.  We feel miserable solely because of the way in which your have defined success for ourselves, when a good part of the solution is just to be happy with ourselves and redefine success in a way that is more palatable for us.

I like just sitting on my back porch under the fan, staring at the back yard.  Why?  I am not sure, but we cannot start defining ourselves based upon our non-successes.  I like to say that I have never lost a case, but a few of my clients have.  The truth of the matter is that we have all lost cases, not brought in as much business as we would have liked, maybe took on too much debt and encumbered ourselves a little too much with possessions and loans and obligations.  We cannot let ourselves be defined by this crap.

To those that call me a loser, I say they are wrong.  I am not a loser.  I have tried.  I have worked hard even when I have not always succeeded in the way that I would have wished.  That makes me a failure ...  and that is a lot different.

I know that people do not rise to low expectations.  I am not really saying to have low expectations of ourselves.  We should dream.  We should try to succeed in ways that are truly important.  But, if we do not succeed on a particular point that does not make us losers.  And, is failure all that bad?  It depends on how we define success.

I will define it for now as the ability to sit on my back porch with a class of iced tea, under the fan, and being able to stare out through the trees with no immediate care in the world.

Now, that is failure that I can live with.