To some people, success is filing the most bankruptcy cases.  To others, it’s having the largest staff or nicest offices.  But in order to attain success, you need to define what success means to you.

I used to think that success was having a good staff with a specific number of new clients coming through the door each month with money in their hands.  And for a long time, that worked for me.  Until I realized that this wasn’t the definition of success – it was a road to lead me to some pre-conceived notion of what success would feel like.

To be in demand is an ego boost, to be sure.  But at a certain point that demand becomes overwhelming.  Too many clients to see in a day, too much work to do, and too many staff members required in order to get that work done.

In the words of the esteemed business consultant, Notorious B.I.G.:

I don’t know what, they want from me
It’s like the more money we come across
The more problems we see

Sure, you’ve got more clients.  More money.  More staff members buzzing around the hive.  But you’re saying goodnight to your kids from the cell phone as you drive home, exhausted and beaten down.  You can’t remember the last time you didn’t have to work on the weekend.

Success Has A Price, But It Is Pre-Set

You need to realize this one going in.  There’s a cost associated with more clients – in fact, a number of them.  More demands on your time.  More overhead.  Less time for your family and friends.  Less of an ability to concentrate on a particular legal issue before you need to move onto the next client file.

I’m not saying it’s a bad price, but it’s one you need to know before you set yourself onto a particular path.  We each get 24 hours in a day,  7 days in a week.  Into that narrow space we must fit everything, work and personal lives inclusive.  The space does not contract, nor does it expand.  When the time runs out, it’s gone.

For some, the larger practice is the way to go.  It provides a sense of comfort and accomplishment, of safety in numbers.  Take in 3 fewer clients this month and it’s not a big deal.

But for others, the choice is a smaller practice with fewer clients.  This enables the lawyer to focus on a single client’s issues more closely, to investigate every angle, and to work with less overhead.  The loss of a single client may be more disruptive, but chances are that the work thrown off by the others will compensate adequately.

Haggle First – Or Feel Like A Rube Later

You know the price of success at each level, and you know that in order to scale you’ve got to incur a cost.  It’s best to sit down and haggle with yourself to figure out what you’re willing to pay in exchange to attain your goals.  And once you do, it’s purely an arms-length transactions with yourself.

That’s easier said than done, though.  You may not realize the true costs until you’re hip deep in the process of attaining your defined goals.  In that case, remember not to go into debt to yourself.  You’ve agreed to pay up to a certain price, and you’ve got nothing left to play with past that point.  It’s time to scale back until you balance the books.

So tell me – what’s your definition of success?  And what price do you pay in pursuit of that goal?

Photo credit: Jeff Hester (flickr).

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