I’ve watched lawyers turn to one another for advice about running their practices for as long as I can remember. They bump into an issue—like how to keep their computers running or how to market their practices—and they call another practitioner and ask for advice.

It’s the blind leading the blind.

It’s how we all end up using the same lame technology solutions and doing the same lame things to market our practices. Mostly we aren’t well trained in handling these issues, we aren’t well versed in the options for addressing them, and we usually ask one another for help.

Of course, we ask for advice about everything else as well, and our peers never hesitate to offer an opinion. It’s how we end up looking like a great big flock of sheep all following one another as we walk around in circles.

Recent example:  “I need a new IT guy. My IT guy sucks. Who should I use?” asked one lawyer of another. “Use my guy,” the other lawyer answered. And the flock grows a bit bigger.

Why do we ask lawyers?

Why don’t we ask successful people running successful businesses? Do you think maybe they’ve got better ideas about how to run a business than the average lawyer? Do you think they’re maybe a bit smarter when it comes to operations, marketing, or sales?

For many years, I was a member of Vistage. It’s a great organization that creates small groups of business owners and chief executives who gather monthly to share advice and insights. Each member helps the other members, and you get a great diversity of advice and input to help you run your business. I was the only lawyer in my group.

Within a few months, it became quite clear to me that, no matter how smart I thought I was, these other people were much smarter than me when it came to running a business (I, of course, could crush them when it came to bullshitting on the phone). They knew things about operations that I’d never even considered. They knew things about marketing that I hadn’t even thought to wonder about. They had years and years of experience thinking about earning business when I’d been thinking about becoming and being a lawyer.

I went to them for advice, and they delivered. Their advice frequently was very different than the advice I’d been getting from lawyers. It was much better than the same old lawyer advice I’d been hearing forever. The stuff they said made sense, and it worked. Vistage was a hugely important piece of my development as a businessperson.

Once I realized what I’d been missing, I stopped asking lawyers for help on running a business. I turned to my Vistage friends. Then, I discovered another amazing treasure trove of advisors. I’d been talking to these people for years and never realized they could help.

One day, in a long settlement conference, I started talking to one of my clients about issues in my practice. He gave me some great advice. From that point on, I started asking my clients for advice. My clients? Yep, it turned out that I’d been sitting next to amazing business advisors for years and hadn’t realized it.

My clients, many of whom ran successful businesses, were happy to explain to me what they were doing to be successful. It was fairly typical that I’d sit in a mediation for 10 hours or more trying to settle their case. We had hours to kill in idle chit-chat. I turned those long, boring sessions into business discussions and learned tremendous things from clients who were running companies or playing key roles in operations, marketing, technology, or finance. They were more than happy to share the lessons they’d learned about making a business successful.

Today, my point is that you should broaden your circle of advice and information. Don’t turn to lawyers for input on non-legal issues. Find yourself some experts with practical experience dealing with your issues. Find people who have successfully managed the problem you’re addressing and ask them for help. You’re surrounded by these people, and more of them are easy to find. The world is out there running businesses and making them work. Talk to those people first.

Turn to your attorney friends when you need legal advice. Turn to your business friends when you need advice for running your business.