Law Students

How to Be Fulfilled as a Solo Lawyer

By Law Vibe

From Susan Cartier Liebel:

“To pursue something difficult you will need commitment, focus and confidence.  You will need the promise of gaining a significant outcome and a sense of fulfillment. If your goals do not move you, if they do not inspire and incite you to action, then you have not found the right goals.” (David Niven, Ph. D.)

Going solo is a life altering step.  It means you are in charge of your income…you, alone.  You are in charge of the clients you will take on and the satisfaction you will derive from spending countless hours working with them and for them on their legal matters.  You will be responsible for the marketing, bookkeeping, billing, adhering to the rules of professional conduct and more.  You will be responsible for running a complete business. The only safety net is you.  AND you and your family will be the beneficiaries of you having challenged yourself to create your own future, taking on the clients you choose to take on, being responsible for running a legal services business and all this entails.  If this goal does not engage all your senses, excite you at the unlimited possibilities (and fear can be mixed with excitement…they are not mutually exclusive.) then you need to rethink your choices.

But consider this:

When end-of-career (managers) discussed their relative success and moments of peak performance during their careers, more than half spoke in terms of the significance of personal fulfillment.  (Thornton, F., G. Privette, and C. Bundrick 1999. “Peak Performance of Business Leaders: And Experience Parallel to Self-Actualization Theory.” Journal of Business and Psychology 14:253-64.)

Most people want a sense of personal fulfillment for all the hours they have committed to working during their lives.  Solos get to fashion their work lives around their personal goals, their personal goals around their professional goals.  No one said it isn’t hard work, it surely is. But if you get excited by the idea of going solo, it moves and inspires you to action, then you have found the right goal. And if you aspire to achieve a significant sense of personal fulfillment and you’ve determined this career path can lead you to gain this fulfillment, then you need to go for it.   And don’t for one second believe creating a legal services business you built by scratch is the end…it is just the beginning.  So many other opportunities can arise in the course of building your business, some you may have contemplated, others not.  But you have the chance to grab hold of them because you are in charge of how you delegate your time.

And for those who feel this is not their true goal, but they have no choice, everything in life is a choice.  We may not always get to choose between two shiny red apples, but if you rethink your expectation of the fruit, they can both make delicious applesauce.

Full post as published by Law Vibe on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).