May 19, 2020 – Alyson Dudek won a bronze medal in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. As a member of the U.S. women's 3000 meter short track relay team, her personal perseverance paid off. Short track speed skating is like Roller Derby, especially in the relay where as many as 16 skaters careen around a small oval at high speed. “Anything can happen and frequently does, so you never give up,” says her father, Rob Dudek, an attorney with Gonzalez Saggio & Harlan LLP in Milwaukee. Thanks to a little luck, the South Korean team was disqualified, bumping China to first, Canada to second, and the U.S. to third. "There's the victory and the glory," teammate Katherine Reutter said. "This may not have been the most glorious, but we were victorious."
Stick with it or quit?
Olympic athletes train for years just to have their chance at such glory. They overcome self-doubt, long odds, and extraordinary challenges. As author Seth Godin points out in The Dip, every opportunity starts out exciting and fun. Then its gets harder and less fun until eventually it becomes really hard and not much fun at all. The trick is to understand whether you are in a “dip” where perseverance will lead to success or when you need to quit, change course, and create new success. All of us in the legal profession have lived this scenario. I always thought law school was an excellent choice for an English/History double major until my first exam results showed I knew nothing about issue spotting. Going to court can be a young lawyer’s dream, but when the judge excludes your evidence or the jury isn’t following your reasoning, the nightmare of reality makes you want to run out the door. To become lawyers, we stick with it and overcome these challenges.
Can you make lemonade?
Many lawyers are currently facing a different kind of career challenge. A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the difficult employment prospects for lawyers and even questioned the value of a law degree. Many good lawyers who’ve done everything right are unemployed. Many smart, ambitious law students have no job prospects. My personal antidote to professional challenges like these has always been to develop a strong network of reliable connections. Avoid the temptation to isolate yourself. In challenging times, personal connections offer the most direct route to discovering opportunities. Now more than ever we need to stay connected with clients, potential clients, referral sources, and other contacts. Work your personal network of friends, law school classmates, and colleagues. My rule of thumb is to always have a full two weeks on my calendar. If I am not with clients or prospective clients then I am meeting with active contacts, referral sources, and friends.
Keep your glass half full
“People prefer the security of known misery, to the misery of unknown insecurity,” says former lawyer turned psychologist Stan McCleary. Personal economics frequently trap lawyers in to making unhappy career choices. How much is it worth for you to be happy? When your life comes to its end, will it be worthwhile to have earned an impressive income doing personally meaningless work? Take stock of your personal misery index. If the practice of law Isn’t creating success for you, develop a vision of career alternatives. Having a law degree unlocks numerous options for you in business, government, education, and politics.
As Seth Godin points out, strategic quitting is not failure, it’s a conscious decision to pursue success on another track. Successful people know whether the light at the end of their current career tunnel is opportunity or a train coming at them. Trust that all of your efforts will ultimately yield to a positive outcome, the only variable being precisely how long it will take. Present yourself to the market, to friends, and to your network by communicating a message of confidence and optimism. Your glass is always half full.
The leap of faith
In an old Buddhist fable, a man falls from a cliff but is saved by grabbing the branch of a tree. Hanging there he sees a small plateau that could save him if only he could reach it. The only way to reach it is to let go of the branch and jump. Like many of you, he is paralyzed by the choice. What is required is a leap of faith. If you are on the right track to happiness, personal perseverance will create success for you. If you need to change tracks, have faith in yourself, in your education, and in your network. Make time for expanding your learning, marketing, and personal brand building. Find a mentor, start blogging or writing for a publication, and work your network.
Remember, maintaining the status quo never changed anyone’s status.
Michael Moore, Lewis and Clark 1983, is a professional coach for lawyers and the founder of Moore’s Law, Milwaukee. He specializes in marketing, client development, and leadership coaching for attorneys at all levels of experience. Moore also advises law firms on strategic planning and resource optimization. He has more than 25 years’ experience in private practice, as a general counsel, in law firm management, and in legal recruiting. For more information, visit www.moores-law.com.
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