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Message: Hi, I thought you might be interested in this article I found. Why Aren’t You Rich? Do Something! Making money should be second nature for you. You’re smart. You rely on facts and proof to help you make decisions. You are one of the best attorneys in your area of expertise. And you provide your clients with excellent council. So why aren’t you rich? Unfortunately, all of the characteristics I described above are not prerequisites for building a successful practice. Don’t get me wrong…they are necessary for maintaining a successful practice. But for growing a law business – that’s what private practice is – a business - you need one particular quality that is more common among successful entrepreneurs than it is among your attorney brethren. The answer is simple yet it will probably eat you up inside when you read it. Most attorneys are not rich because they do not have a bias for action. Whenever I introduce this concept to a client, it is immediately greeted with skepticism. After all, you certainly represent your clients vigorously. And I am certain that you can think of some occasions when you were a little too aggressive in pursuing your client’s interest. So how could I possibly say that attorneys wallow in mediocrity because they fail to take action? I will walk you though my answer but I need you to promise me something before we get to that…I need you to promise that you will read this article, think about it and then read it once a week for the next four weeks. I want you to do this even if you don’t agree with my premise right away. Print it out (there is a cute little icon on the bottom of the screen that will format it for you) and read it a few times. It’s important that you do this because it will take a while to sink in. The concept is something that has probably not been beaten into you so it may take a few repetitions to get through. Everyone has new ideas. Some of them are good, a few are great and a few stink. Everyday we pass judgment on these ideas based upon our past experience or based upon what we “think we know”. In reality, there are no bad ideas. There are only untested ideas. When we pass judgment on an idea before we try it out, we are eliminating all possibility for success. The best entrepreneurs don’t do that. Neither do the best attorneys. They test every idea. No matter how silly they may seem at the time. They at least “float” every proposal by some folks they trust to test the craziness of it. Taking action – doing something – is critical to building a big practice, quickly. Since we are all a bunch of rational thinkers, here are the five reasons that having a bias for action is one of the most critical characteristics of a successful attorney: It’s simple physics Objects in motion tend to stay in motion. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest. If you get a good idea and you fail to act on it, you will be less likely to act on your next good idea. If you always jump into action when you have an idea, you will be more likely to profit from a good idea when it arises. Doing something is always better than doing nothing – even if that something is the wrong thing. You might be thinking: “The more action I take the more mistakes I will make”. That is absolutely true. If you take action you will make mistakes. But you can counteract those mistakes by taking CORRECTIVE action immediately. Success rarely follows a straight line. More often than not the path toward a successful outcome is full of detours, wrong turns and course corrections. The key is to keep your eyes (and your mind) open and understand what is happening as a result of your action. Action Stimulates Thinking and Makes You Smarter If you have a bias for action you are probably going to become good at thinking on your feet. You will get practice at diagnosing problems and issues quickly and you will hone your deductive reasoning skills. This happens because you learn make course corrections on a regular basis. This will sharpen you cognitive skills. Take action…review the results…adjust your approach…take more action. Action Gets Noticed As a society we have become accustom to people doing nothing. We have gotten used to a lack of follow-up. We expect that our calls will not be returned until we have left three or four messages. We know that we will have to reach out to several people before we find someone who can help us with even the most mundane task. People who take action get noticed. If you promised something to a client – and you fulfill that promise – you will move to the short list of action-oriented people in that person’s mind. Unfortunately, it is a pretty rare occasion when people actually follow through. You Will Feel Better Doing something makes us feel better. Whenever we make a mistake – and we admit to ourselves that we have made a mistake – we want to feel better. Taking some kind of action, no matter how small, helps to “balance the ledger” in our mind. Taking some kind of action will always help you feel as though you have some control over the situation. It is the beginning of an internal healing process. We’ve all said something stupid and hurtful to someone we care about. The last time that happened to you, when did you begin to feel better about your relationship with that person? Chances are good that you felt better the next time you had a meaningful, positive conversation with that person. The time between when you said the stupid thing and when you had a good conversation may have been painful. You could have shortened that pain by “clearing the air” sooner. The same concept is true of taking action in asking for more business. The next time you are in front of a client, ask him if he has any other matters that need legal attention. Ask him if he knows other people who need legal assistance. If you don’t ask you will never know…and it will make you feel better. There is an old cliché that says “action speaks louder than words”. In the case of business development, taking action today will lead to a trip to the bank tomorrow. The more action you take the more chances you are giving yourself to succeed. You deserve that opportunity. What are the last three great business development ideas you had? Why not do something…anything…to make those ideas happen? Do it now. Link: http://www.rainmakerlawyer.com/site/permalink/do_something/