You have the big idea. It’s probably a marketing project. Maybe I stimulated your thinking? I hope so.
You think it through, figure out the details, and get it organized and ready.
Then you meet with the other lawyers in your firm for discussion, input, and buy-in.
They listen for about nine seconds and launch into why you shouldn’t do it. They’ve got reasons—lots of reasons:
It could:
- create liability for us,
- get bad press,
- annoy some people,
- embarrass us,
- fail,
- upset the older partners,
- wind up costing more than we plan,
- get the negative attention of the state bar, or
- end up in total disaster and the planet could explode.
In most law firms, you’re lucky to have one person who has ideas. You’re fortunate to be one of those few lawyers who thinks about “could do” instead of why you “shouldn’t do.” You’re unusual.
The first time they shoot down your idea, it’ll feel like they were actually thinking about the project and giving you feedback. After the third, tenth, or fortieth time, you’ll realize they just don’t know how to say “go for it.” They only see the risk. They can’t see the benefit.
Just for fun, take that thinking and multiply it by the 1 million lawyers in the United States. What do you get? Yep, you get what we’ve got. We’re stuck.
So what are you to do? How do you make your big idea happen in the face of complete and total resistance, reluctance to act, and fear of change?
You can:
- act now and ask for permission later;
- navigate the system under the radar and slowly push your ideas forward;
- fight the battle (once in a while you’ll win);
- leave and go do your own thing;
- leave and go do something else where your idea will generate excitement instead of hostility; and
- give up, grow bitter, and get old.
Most of these lawyers who are telling you no don’t have an idea. They don’t have anything other than reasons to not do what you’ve proposed. You’re one of the few with an idea. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to let them kill it? Or are you going to make it happen?
