Do you like big challenges? Do you really like big challenges? If so, how big is your glass?
We all know that attorneys are trained to be risk-averse. And that that is a necessary element of being a good attorney. Your clients want to be able to describe a business deal or other opportunity to you and have you be the one person who says, “But have you thought about this?”
Yet, there’s another side to that propensity for risk aversion. Frankly, it just gets in the way of taking risks.
In Marketing the Legal Mind, Henry Dahut suggests that it’s not just whether your glass is half full or half empty, but that the size of the glass is equally important. For it’s the size of the glass that determines how much opportunity there can be in a given situation. And it’s the size of glass that determines the amount of risk that you’re willing to take.
If we choose to take on small challenges, the risks will be small, but so will the rewards. As Dahut says, this is the proverbial dilemma of wanting big things, but thinking too small to get them. Which is a fundamentally inconsistent type of thinking.
So, don’t box yourself in. Get a bigger glass.
