Recently, I wrote about Rickie Fowler taking a risk on his approach shot on the first playoff hole in the Wells Fargo golf tournament: Taking Risks in Client Development.

Last Friday, I participated with the LexBlog professionals in a client development coaching program for Seattle lawyers. Kevin O’Keefe posted: By marketing to everyone you are marketing to no one describing some of the points that I made.

One topic that came up was that some lawyers are not blogging because, for them to blog, it would have to be long, detailed and perfect. In essence they are stymied because of fear that someone out there might criticize what they write.

I understand this fear. I experienced it, but for me it was actually healthy. My fear caused me to become better prepared.

 

Michael Jordan said it well:

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.

As he shared in this Nike commercial, that means willing to risk failure.

I owe a great deal of the success and enjoyment of my law practice to being creative and willing to take risks. Like Michael Jordan, some of my client development efforts failed. If you are a regular reader you remember that I prepared 8 hours of video for construction contractors and attempted to sell it. I only recently went through boxes in my garage and threw away the last tapes.I viewed this, and each other failure, as a learning experience.

What do you expect of yourself on client development? If you can make it to the edge of your personal or professional abilities, then you know you are giving your personal best. Hope this helps.