Especially, maybe, the last one?

What if every day you showed up to work, eager to do something really good? Something meaningful.

What if you came up with ideas on how to do things better? Not at first, but only after you felt confident that you understood the point of the work and all of the subtle forces surrounding it.

What if every day you felt a sense of satisfaction about your work? What if you could try a new approach at the very moment you realized it was better? What if your boss completely supported this? What if you were the boss? What if you worked for yourself?

Let me pose a question: Are you passionate about your practice?

I don’t mean “Do you enjoy your job?” I’m not talking about the mere absence of hate, nor even the genuine if all too brief moments of pleasure that we all get from time to time, some more sporadically than others. I mean “Do you feel true passion for what you do?”

Grant Achatz is passionate about cooking, and it shows: a few years back, his Chicago restaurant Alinea was named by Gourmet magazine as the best restaurant in America. The 34-year-old was at the forefront of a new movement in cooking, based on a fusion of chemistry and performance art, and thought nothing of those 17-hour-days he put in.

And then, irony of ironies, he discovered he had cancer. Not just any cancer, mind you: in a sickening display of the cruel random chaos life can bring, Grant found out he had stage 4 tongue cancer.

The treatment ultimately took away his sense of taste. That might be fatal for some chefs, but Grant found a way.

You can read more about Grant’s amazing story here at MSNBC.

But what I want to know now is this: Are you just cooking? Or are you creating legal masterpieces?

I think the key difference is passion.

Also, in light of the effort required, I’m giving away a current generation iPod Nano (may be refurbished model, FYI) to one lucky survey respondent at the end of those three weeks.

If you’d like to be entered into the drawing, just give me your contact information in the last question. Include whatever shipping address you’d like me to use in the event you win the drawing.

Rules of the Drawing

1. You must complete the survey (optional questions excepted) in order to be qualified to win the drawing. No purchase required.
2. You must provide a valid email address and shipping address in the last question in order to be entered into the drawing. Under no circumstances will I ever use your email address or contact information for any other purpose, nor will I sell it. Nonwinning entries will be deleted promptly.
3. Void where prohibited.

Studying the experiences of other solos and entrepreneurs — not just of the law-practice variety but in any field — can lead to much wisdom for new solo lawyers. You know how to be a lawyer (or you’ve got a plan to learn, if you’re straight out of law school); you also need to learn to run your business and simultaneously, your life.

Melanie’s tips are spot-on. Inspiration comes from filling your well periodically, although it’s quite easy to allow yourself to become consumed with the idea of your new practice.

Definitely worth a good read!

I just read an article at RainToday.com that has the whiff of “controversy” about it: ‘Branding’ and Other Fad Words That Keep You from Doing a Good Job, by contributing editor Bruce Marcus.

Why “controversy”? Because I can’t believe that every lawyer who reads the following is going to agree — in fact, I can almost hear the howls of protest in my head already:

A brand, it’s commonly accepted, is a promise. It’s a promise of quality, as well as consistency. You know that the next tube of your favorite brand of toothpaste will be the same as the last. Can one say that of legal or accounting services or the performance of lawyers and accountants?

A professional firm may have a name that many people recognize. It may have a reputation for managing its clientele effectively and efficiently, and meeting its expectations, with intelligence, skill and integrity. It may even have the consistency of visual recognition of its graphics, as do product brands.

But these virtues hardly qualify for the traditional title of brand. Certainly, if a firm advertises as much as Coca-Cola or Dell, its graphics will readily identify a professional firm. But it doesn’t guarantee that the next matter the law firm handles for you will have the same outcome as the last one, or that the next tax opinion will be as good as the last one.

What do you think? Can you brand a law firm? I say “Of course you can,” and I’m tempted to think Mr. Marcus doesn’t really get what law practice marketing is about these days. To me, the brand of a solo is the solo. You have to package yourself as the business, and present your unique qualities, traits, experience, or some other aspect (alone or in combination) as your brand.

Nor do I accept the premise that it’s a shallow concept. Insofar as any judging of covers may lead to shallow assessments of the books inside, perhaps — but it’s a the necessary first step. Just like blogging alone does not make a marketing plan, so too must we include the brand identity as the foundation of that plan.

Or so I think, anyway. Do you disagree? Tell me why in the comments below.

What is this? The second entry in our Top 100 Rules for Inspired Solos.

Rule #99: Inspired solos dream big

We’ve all heard the acronym “SMART” by now in reference to goal-setting, right? A quick refresher may be in order:

S — Specific
M — Measurable
A — Use Action Words
R — Realistic and relevant
T — Time-limited

I’d add a sixth requirement — Y for You yearn for it — making the acronym a much more fun “SMARTY.”(I confess I was hoping to turn it into “SMARTASS” but, alas, couldn’t make it work while remaining succinct.)

It’s that sixth requirement I’m talking about when I say “dream big.”

See, while most coaches, consultants, and whatevers focus on the “R” — the realistic — I think there’s a danger in overemphasizing the realistic. Too easily, realistic becomes ridiculously easy and totally uninspiring.

Change, my friends, is hard. And that’s exactly what you do when you begin to launch your solo practice and help it grow — you’re changing the status quo, and that’s never going to be easy. It requires great effort to overcome the present course of motion — remember your Newtonian physics? “Bodies at rest tend to stay at rest.”

What you need is the goal-setting equivalent of a force strong enough to kick that body at rest into orbit. And you don’t get that necessary strength by focusing on realistic goals.

You get it by dreaming big.

What Is “Big Dreaming”?

It’s allowing yourself the freedom to let your mind wander and claim what your heart truly desires. To acknowledge “This, and nothing else — this is what I really, truly want in my heart of hearts” has great power in it.

So, dream of starting an office that grows within ten years to a small boutique that strikes terror in the hearts of tall building law firms all across your state — nay, region!

Or dream of being the caped crusader who fights the big guys and wins — at the Supreme Court.

Whatever your dream is, let it be one that really moves you, inspires you, and makes your blood race just a bit faster.

But Wait: There’s More (There Always Is)

Now, if that’s all there were to it, we’d all just go around dreaming of glory and feeling pretty good that we’re going for it — that is, until we run smack into the glass wall of reality, right?

Unfortunately, you do have to come to earth a bit, but don’t do that until after you come to terms with your big dream. Once you start allowing yourself to “yeah, but”-ing your big dream as you’re dreaming it, you’ll start convincing yourself you really didn’t want it after all. It’s human nature. And before you know it you’ll have talked yourself completely out of it.

So leave the editing and the “hows” for later. First, find a patch of grass, a comfy hammock, a cozy couch, whatever feels good. Lie back. And dream. Dream big.

The survey itself is being “finessed” and will be published next week. It’ll run for at least 2 weeks, possibly three, and is designed to give me some guidance as to certain aspects of the planned expansion of this site that I’m currently working on.

That leads me to the second thing — the question:

How much should I disclose about that expansion planning & implementation process?

Put another way: is a discussion on branding worth having on this blog, even if it’s about a law-related business, instead of a law practice?

I believe in transparency and authenticity in this Web 2.0 world; I fully embrace it both as a sound business concept and as a value worth living. But there’s such a thing as too much disclosure, too — or premature disclosure.

It just seemed like an interesting (potentially) discussion that y’all might like to have. Let me know, and while I don’t promise to do what the majority want (this ain’t no democracy!) I will certainly consider all thoughts. (Benevolent dictatorship maybe?)

Right now, go here and leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and you’ll be entered into a contest for a freebie receipt scanner, worth $250.

Sparkplug has tons of cool stuff for entrepreneurs of all flavors and stripes. You’ll definitely thank me for this one.

I deactivated a couple of plugins (Twit This and the All in One SEO pack, if you’re interested) and it seems OK now. Those who saw the site in the interim got a sneak preview of what it’s gonna look like soon, though — well, a partial preview, anyway!

I don’t go tinkering in my code, as a rule — certainly haven’t done so lately, so I have no clue what’s up with this.

I do apologize and am trying to sort it out. Hang tight.

(One more reason to embrace RSS!)