Fear is a part of what we do.

• The fear of making a mistake.
• The fear of embarrassing ourselves.
• The fear of an employee quitting.
• The fear of disappointing a client.
• The fear of dropping the ball at home.
• The fear of taking on more than we can handle.
• The fear of overlooking that important argument.
• The fear of getting sued for malpractice.
• The fear of failing to ask the critical question.
• The fear of having the perfect argument—when it’s too late.
• The fear of missing an asset we should have discovered.
• The fear of a client filing a grievance.
• The fear of failing to comprehend a point of law.
• The fear of missing a deadline.
• The fear of being unprepared.
• The fear of the State Bar deciding we broke a rule.
• The fear of a client asking for a big refund.
• The fear of our client hiring someone else.
• The fear of a client writing a negative review on the Web.
• The fear of not getting paid.
• The fear of being unable to pay our employees.
• The fear of being overextended to the bank.
• The fear of making a bad decision for the wrong reasons.
• The fear of a shortcut coming back to bite us.
• The fear of loss of respect.
• The fear of doing less than we know we know we’re capable of doing.

It’s been 25 years for me. The fear is a constant. It changes; it’s different. But it never goes away.