You’re the best person on the team. You’re the go-to person. You’re the best one to handle it when obstacles arise, difficulties are encountered, and the unexpected happens. You’re the one who can go with the flow, cajole the client, defy opposing counsel, and banter with the judge.
Everyone else is second to you. They’re not as good. They’re not as agile, smart, capable, and willing to do what it takes.
Plus, you cost less. Sure, you make the big bucks, but doing this one extra thing is free. It costs next to nothing.
After all, you’re paid for everything else you do. Doing this one thing takes just a few minutes. You’ll only have to divert for a moment. You’ll be back to what you were doing in just a second.
Doing it yourself is…better…cheaper….less trouble…and you don’t have to interview, select, supervise, manage, train, praise, review, and provide feedback.
You are your best employee. You are the person who should take it on, and you’re the best person to finish it.
The Reality Check
But you can feel it coming, can’t you? You know I’m going to come at you about delegation, management, getting help, etc.
But—and this is important—you really are your best employee. You’re right to think it makes sense for you to do it all. You’re correct this time. I actually agree with you.
Delegating work—any work—is likely to result in (at least for a while) compromises. It’s going to cost more, result in lower quality, create more client upset, and involve mistakes. Often, it is going to get dumped right back in your lap.
You’re right this time. Make a note of it. I don’t say it often. You might want to print this and frame it. Save it and review it when I’m ranting about something you’re doing wrong so you can soothe yourself. ‘Cause you know, tomorrow, I’ll be screaming at you about something. I can’t help myself.
You are the best employee. You are the best person on the team.
And you can leave it that way. You can keep the work. You can do it all. You can execute at a very high level, and nearly everything will go smoothly as you master the art of what you do.
But you can’t grow. You’ll be stuck once you max out your capacity. You’ll hit the wall.
But it’s not a horrible wall. You can earn a great living being maxed out. You can master the work, become an expert, and push your prices to the upper limit. You can hover right there for a long time, build your nest egg, feel good about what you do, and create a very secure future. Lots of highly regarded lawyers follow exactly that path.
That path doesn’t sound so bad at the moment you discover that she “forgot” to file the documents with the court before the deadline, does it? That doesn’t sound so bad when you ask why and she says, “I don’t know.” Oh yeah, doing it all yourself feels pretty good at that moment.
How to Break Through the Wall
If you want to grow, then you’re going to have to accept all the hassles of management. You’re going to have to evolve to a different business model. You’re going to spend your time building systems, creating teams, and watching cash flow. Is that what you want? Is that what you dreamed of? Is that your ambition?
You have choices. You can build whatever you like. You can have whatever you want.
In Rosen’s Rules, a free online course, I teach you how it’s done. I provide 10 rules followed by successful law firms. The course is spread out over 10 days.
On the second day, we learn about creating a vision. The vision can be about you doing the work, or it can be about surrounding yourself with others. It can be about being small or being big. It can be about helping any kind of client in any particular way. Rule 2 is about figuring out what you want, seeing it, and heading down the path to building it.
It’s your life, and it’s your business. You have choices. Create what you want. Do it with the exercise provided in Rosen’s Rules. You may have already taken the course. You may have skimmed by the “vision” rule. It’s not too late to go back and spend some time thinking, creating, and seeing what’s possible. You have choices. Now is the time to make them.
