On Fridays, I have shared poetry and music with you. I like this poem by Berton Braley. It is one of my favorite, inspirational poems.

Success– Berton Braley published in 1916

If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and
your sleep for it
If only desire of it
Makes you quite mad enough
Never to tire of it,
Makes you hold all other things tawdry
and cheap for it
If life seems all empty and useless without it
And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,
If gladly you’ll sweat for it,
Fret for it, Plan for it,
Lose all your terror of God or man for it,
If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want.
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,
If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,
Nor sickness nor pain
Of body or brain
Can turn you away from the thing that you want,
If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!

I have posted here five days a week Monday thru Friday for more than four years. Starting next week, I plan to start posting here two days a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and maybe one more day a week if I have guest posts from lawyers I have coached or know. If you want to write something here, let me know.

I am doing less coaching now than I did at the peak of the recession. My efforts at blogging, while very enjoyable, are not generating much coaching work for me. For some reason, law firms are less inclined now to invest in their next generation.

I hate being bored, so I am making this change to devote more time to the novel I am writing about Gina Caruso. She is an interesting character in a variety of ways. She married her law school classmate, Tony Caruso, the character from my book: Say Ciao to Chow Mein,  thinking he would be the breadwinner for the family, and Gina would work fewer hours and help raise their children.

If you read Say Ciao you know that Tony is “burns out” early in his career and wonders whether he made the right decision to become a lawyer. That means Gina must focus on her career far more than planned. She works very hard, including substantial international travel, devotes time  on the Board of the Houston Chapter of a charity for young girls, like Girls, Inc.  and then works hard at home raising her two children and taking care of her husband.

Gina is both a very smart lawyer, and  a seductive and charming person who lights up any room she enters. Her legal skills and charm help her negotiate big energy deals around the world for her large client Burke Energy (one of the old Texas oil families). When the DOJ goes after Burke for alleged bribery overseas in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, (FCPA), Gina becomes a potential target or witness in the investigation.

I will leave you there with my story. I hope you will enjoy reading more when I finish my work.