A Well Trained Lawyer ...
I really love this quote, as it goes to the heart of the value (vs. time) of what lawyers provide:
"A well-trained man knows how to answer questions; an educated man knows what questions are worth asking."
-- E. Digby Baltzell (1955)
Hat tip: Kevin Kelly
Focus Wins
From Seth Godin:
When you have someone who is willing to accomplish A without worrying about B and C, they will almost always defeat you in accomplishing A.
100 Tweets: Thinking About Law Practice in 140 Characters or Less.
I really like Twitter. For those who follow me, you know that I try to share lots of legal-themed tips, thoughts and ideas. In fact, most of my Ten Rules posts started out on Twitter -- where I'll test 15-25 "rules" to see which ones work best before picking the ten favorites.
However, there's lots of stuff that lives on Twitter now that used to live here on the blog. And since I don't expect everyone reading this to follow me there (or go back and read through my 2000+ Twitter messages), I decided to compile a "Best Of" list of my favorite tweets.
So, here (in .pdf form) is a little e-book I've titled: 100 Tweets: Thinking about Law Practice in 140 Characters or Less. It contains my favorite 100 tweets, in no particular order, and should give you a sense of what I share on Twitter that you don't always see here.
If you enjoy it, and would like to follow me on Twitter, I'll see you there.
An Interview with Me
Just in case you're interested, here's a link to an interview I did about innovation, law practice and becoming a former lawyer. It's here if you'd like a listen:
The Five Most Dangerous Words in Business
The five most dangerous words in business, according to Warren Buffett, are:
Everybody else is doing it.
Power "Marketing" Tip from Dale Carnegie
Bert Decker reminded me of this fantastic quote from the great Dale Carnegie that I had to share:
You will win more friends in the next two months developing asincere interest in two people than you will ever win in the next twoyears trying to get two people interested in you.
Learn to Teach, Teach to Learn
From William Glasser:
We Learn:
10% of what we READ20% of what we HEAR
30% of what we SEE
50% of what we SEE and HEAR
70% of what is DISCUSSED with OTHERS
80% of what is EXPERIENCED PERSONALLY
95% of what we TEACH TO SOMEONE ELSE
Know What You Don't Know
Ben Folds, from the song “Bastard” on Songs for Silverman:
“Why you got to act like you know when you don’t know?”
How many of us are afraid to admit to a client that we, “just don’t know” the answer? Ben Folds would suggest:
“It’s OK if you don’t know everything.”
It really is. Next time you don’t know, say you don’t know. Your clients may appreciate your candor.
Quote of the Day
From the book The Radical Edge: To be successful, you must do "what you love in the service of the people you love, who in turn, love what you do for them."
Quote of the Week.
“You can play a shoestring if you’re sincere.” – John-Coltrane
(from this amazing list of Jazz Quotes at Presentation Zen)
Be a Master
Hugh MacLeod on the billable hour:
The thing about consulting I hate is, you just get paid by the billable hour. So the minute you stop tapdancing, you're dead.
A Journeyman gets paid while he works. A Master gets paid while he sleeps.
Friday Time Waster
Who thought reading an encyclopedia could be fun? Well, now with Wikipedia (and WikiQuote) on the scene, you can’t go wrong with a little bit of encyclopedic knowledge on a Friday afternoon. Don’t say I didn’t warn you (see title of the post):
Simpsons Quotes, Simpsons Neologisms, and finally Bart’s Chalkboard Gags.
What's the Client Benefit You Promise?
I ran across this David Ogilvy quote in this post at AdPulp:
If you spend your advertising budget entertaining the consumer, you’re a bloody fool. Housewives don’t buy a new detergent because the manufacturer told a joke on television last night. They buy the new detergent because it promises a benefit. – David Ogilvy
What benefit does your business promise?
Quote of the Week
I know I don’t post one every week, but I found this quote by Robert T. Allen on one of my new favorite blogs 37 Days:
The truth is that everything that can be accomplished by showing a person when he's wrong, ten times as much can be accomplished by showing him where he is right. The reason we don't do it so often is that it's more fun to throw a rock through a window than to put in a pane of glass. - Robert T. Allen
While you're at it, check out Always Rent the (Red) Convertible.
It's all about the grades.
Freakin’ great advice. Don’t major in something that interests you. Don’t challenge yourself. Don’t worry about learning anything important. (Thanks to Buffalo Wings and Vodka for the tip.)
Ladies and Gentlemen
I ran across Man on a Mission yesterday. It is a blog collecting companies’ “Mission Statements.” I particularly liked the entry about the Ritz-Carlton hotels. Go read the entire thing, but I was taken by the hotel chain’s motto:
"We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen."
Quote of the Day
Thanks to Getting Things Done, The Broad View for this quote from Edward de Bono:
“It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.”
Quote of the Week
Alex Wexelblat at Copyfight is my quote of the week:
It's important to remember that no matter who you are - CVS, Microsoft, the Cartel, whoever - most of the smart people in the world don't work for you. It really would be better all around if more people would keep that in mind.
Quote of the Week
“Fix the holes in the bucket first, and then worry about how to add more water!” — Howard Kaplan
This quote comes from the author of one of my favorite blogs, A Day in the Life of a Persuasion Architect. The quote comes from this post talking about a ClickZ article that collected common complaints Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms have about their clients. Howard’s take:
It's pure lunacy to change your site to accommodate the recommendations of a firm whose stated goals are to provide more qualified traffic, when you've previously displayed an utter inability to close on the qualified traffic you currently enjoy.
The lesson for lawyers? How much “qualified traffic” visits your web site, calls your office, or comes in for an initial appointment yet doesn’t retain your firm? Until you know the reason(s) why, don’t spend any additional marketing dollars. Instead, take your marketing budget (you have one, right?), divide it by your hourly rate and spend at least that amount of time fixing the problems. Once you get your act together, spend the dough to tell other people what a great lawyer you are.
P.S. It seems like the rethink(ip) guys like this quote too.
Law review is the path to the dark side.
Jeremy Blachman has Yoda’s Twenty Pieces of Law School Advice. Really funny stuff.
On a more serious note, my LexThink partner Scheherazade Fowler has this great list of Legal Lies.