UPDATE: Due to an error in cut and paste (forgive me – I’m still finding my way around the Mac keyboard!) a portion of this lesson was erroneously left off. I’ve pasted it back into this post where it should have been located – you can find it in the extended post right before a new heading I’ve inserted (“Setting Up The AIR Interviews”).
This is lesson #3 in our ongoing Solo Flight course – a self-directed coaching program designed to help lawyers decide whether launching their own solo practice is the next step in their careers. If you’re interested in starting this program, you can proceed on your own pace (recommended: one lesson a week) by starting here with lesson #1, part 1; here for part 2; and here for lesson #2. You’ll need a journal and a pen, and some quiet time. Be sure to drop me a line after you’re done and give me some feedback on the course, to improve it for future readers. After this round, it will be revised and uploaded as an e-book to this site.
Last week, we took our affirmations a step further, and we laid the groundwork for some informational interviews with solo lawyers. We also started exploring our beliefs about solo practice.
This week, we’re going to shift gears a bit, and start digging deep into practicalities. The questions we look at in this lesson are:
- What do I love about my current work environment?
- What would I change about my current job if I could?
- If I could change those negative aspects of my current position, would I still be interested in solo practice?
And finally, one of the most powerful questions of all:
- If I decide to “go solo,” what’s the worst that could happen? In short: What, exactly, am I afraid of?
These questions aren’t just exercises in navel-gazing. They’re at the heart of the decision to launch your own business – whether we’re talking about a law practice or any other professional service firm. The first three questions look at your present job environment – specifically, at what you love, and what you hate, about your job, the office you work in, the building the office is located in, the systems that have been set up for you and which you are expected to follow, your pay, the nature of the work, your support staff, your colleagues, your supervisors, the ultimate bosses, the clients, and how all of those people treat you.
These three questions – “What do I love?”, “What do I hate?” and “If I change the things I hate, do I still want to go solo?” – are all designed to help you uncover your deepest truth about your motives. By examining your current situation, you either rule out or confirm for yourself that the real problem isn’t that you want to go solo, but that you want a different job.
You see, when we launch solo practices, ideally we’re running towards something. We go solo because we want to create something positive of our very own. We have passionate ideas about the law and the way it’s practiced, or about client service, or our practice areas, or some socio-political issue that revs us up and drives us forward. Or maybe we’re simply passionate about the law in general and being our own boss. Whatever the passion might be, it should ideally be the light at the end of the tunnel toward which you’re running.
But often, we get snowed by our own emotions. In a toxic workplace, we can misinterpret the signals to get out of that situation as impulses to go into business for ourselves. The circumstances cause us pain; we want to run away from those circumstances and find better ones. If one of the options we identify happens to be going solo, then it’s possible to mistake the desire to end what’s causing the discomfort for a desire to create a new venture.
It may well be in that situation that the best solution for your toxic workplace is, in fact, to go solo. It was for me. But you first have to separate the two issues. There’s the hell that is your current job. And then there’s the completely different subject of starting your own business.
So take some time to analyze your current work environment. Figure out, if you haven’t done so yet, what precisely it is that’s causing you unnecessary stress and anguish. Now, look at the possible solutions for each of those factors making it such a bad place to work. Are any of those solutions within your power to effect?
If you go through this analysis and discover, as you suspected, that it will take a complete change of management and/or someone else’s 180-degree personality shift before the situation improves sufficiently for you to stay there happily, then you know the answer to one question – and one question only. And it’s not “Should I go solo?” It’s “Should I leave my current job?”
We’re still not done, though. To get to the solo issue, you have to answer this one last question: “If I suddenly had the power to make those changes – give that boss a personality makeover, or remove the backstabbing colleague – would I still be interested in going solo?” To answer that question, you really have to rely on your imagination a bit. Try to picture yourself in the newly changed environment, going through your daily routine. Now pay attention to where your mind goes in that new environment. If you’re merrily tripping through daisies, metaphorically speaking, that’s a clue that maybe going solo isn’t the answer to what ails you. But if your mind still turns back to the general topic of becoming a sole practitioner, then your interest really does lie with creating your new venture, and not merely escaping a bad current situation.
One caution: you might find, when you indulge in this fantasy about your job perfected, that your mind runs not to doing the job, or to launching your own practice, but to a third, almost “hybrid” path. Certain people, when they let their imaginations work for them in this way, find themselves in their mind’s eye at the helm of the ship, so to speak. They are the managing partner. They are the boss. But not a solo boss – the boss of the current firm, or some fantasy version thereof. If that’s you, consider carefully whether the real desire isn’t to create your own solo practice, but to be the boss of a firm – any firm? If that’s the case, you might be better off staying where you are and letting your seniority help you as you retool and aim for that top job.
Now that we’re through our examination of the current situation, we’re going to shift our focus a bit with one final question. Be as thorough as you can possibly be in answering this one, because it sets the groundwork for the first stages of planning your new firm, if you decide to continue. Here’s the question, again:
If I decide to “go solo,” what’s the worst that could happen?
In short: What, exactly, am I afraid of?
Try approaching this in list format. Go as fast as you can and write down as many things as you can think of that cause you any measure of apprehension, fear, or impending doom.
That’s it! Next week, we’ll build on this, of course. But for now, use the week to keep adding to the list, refining it, and making sure it reveals every single thing that makes you uneasy about starting your own business.
Setting Up the AIR Interviews
In addition to the above exercises, we’re also going to start finalizing our plans for those informational interviews. If you haven’t pinned down who you want to interview, do that now. If you’re having trouble finding people who meet the criteria I specified in lesson #2, don’t hesitate to ask around. Maybe a liaison at your bar association might be able to help. (The criteria are, once again: one solo who matches your demographics, one solo who practices in your intended practice area, and one who’s been in business as a solo for several years.)
Once you’ve got those three people identified (and maybe have a few backups, just in case), start to make contact with them. Explain you’re not looking for a job, but simply want information. Offer to take them out to lunch, or meet in their office – whatever’s most convenient for them. (They’re doing you a serious favor, so make it easy for them to say “yes” to your request.) Most solos will enjoy talking about themselves and their paths to solo practice quite a bit. Of course, if you’re concerned about your boss finding out about these interviews, you will need to address that issue with your interviewees. Explain the need for confidentiality (though you shouldn’t need to – that should be apparent). If it does come up, though, you can simply shrug and tell them the truth – you’re examining your options. Smart lawyers keep their options open in this economic climate.
For now, it’s enough to simply make the appointment.
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