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The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
I am more convinced than ever that nothing that traditional bar organizations are doing is going to move the needle on the sad stats on lawyer happiness ...
The root cause of all lawyers' problems is financial stress. Financial stress holds you back from getting the right people on the bus, running the right systems, and being able to only do work for clients you want to work with. Financial stress keeps you in the office on nights and weekends, often doing work you hate for people you don't like, and doing that work alone.
(Yes, you have permission to do only work you like doing and doing it with people you like working with.)
The money stress is not because the lawyers are bad lawyers or bad people. In fact, most lawyers are good at the lawyering part and they are good people.
The money stress is caused by the general lack of both business skills and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Thus, good lawyers who are good people get caught up and slowed down in bringing their gifts to the world. Their families, teams, clients, and communities are not well-served because you can't serve others at your top level when you are constantly worrying about money.
We can blame the law schools and the elites of the profession who are running bar organizations, but to blame anyone else for your own woes is a loser's game. It is, in itself, a restrictive, narrow, mindset that will keep you from ever seeing, let alone experiencing, a better future.
Lawyers need to be in rooms with other entrepreneurs. They need to hang with people who won't tell you that your dreams are too big or that "they" or "the system "won't allow you to achieve them. They need to be in rooms where people will be in their ear telling them that their dreams are too small.
Get in better rooms. That would be the first step.
Second step, ignore every piece of advice any general organized bar is giving about how to make your firm or your life better.
The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
Ep. 241 – You Did Everything Right. So Why Are You Miserable?
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What happens when you do everything you're told will make you successful—and you're still miserable? Ben Glass shares a conversation with a young lawyer who followed the traditional path to success and discovered it wasn't enough. The reminder: you get one life, and your career should help you build a life filled with joy—not stand in the way of it.
Ben Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury and long-term disability insurance attorney in Fairfax, VA. Since 2005, Ben Glass and Great Legal Marketing have been helping solo and small firm lawyers make more money, get more clients and still get home in time for dinner. We call this TheGLMTribe.com
What Makes The GLM Tribe Special?
In short, we are the only organization within the "business builder for lawyers" space that is led by two practicing lawyers.
One thing we're sure you've noticed is that despite the variety of options within our space, no one else is mixing
the actual practice of law with business building in the way that we are.
There are no other organizations who understand the highs and lows of running a small law firm and are engaged in talking to real clients. That is what sets GLM apart from every other organization, and it is why we have had loyal members that have been with us for two-decades.
A Lawyer Gets A Surprising Note
SPEAKER_01Here's more from the renegade lawyer Ben Glass.
SPEAKER_00And then a couple of weeks go by and have a another young lady reaches out to me, and her message is I I read Play Left Fullback. I'm here in a local firm. I just want to talk. I love that, right? So we actually got on the phone for about a half hour. By the way, she's the third person at this particular firm that I've had a private, confidential, one-on-one chat with about life, right?
The Success Path That Felt Empty
SPEAKER_00And she says to me, you know, I feel really ripped off. They told me that if I did they, the profession she was meaning, that if I did what they said to do, that I would be happy. So I went to Harvard, I went to Stanford Law, I became a federal uh judge's clerk. I the next oh, I went to big law, where she said, by the way, in big law, she her words now the game is you
How To Make Your Mark
SPEAKER_00make up shit to do. All right. And I was totally, totally miserable. She says, now I think I've found my place. It's kind of a big firm and they have a you know a good plaintiff's practice. She says, but oh my God. Again, her words, I'm in there with old white men who all think the same. And so her question to me really was, how do I make my, how do I make my well, her first question was, is this all there is? Right? Is this like what the journey really is when you get in on the inside, right? And if not, because I said, no, hell no, that's not what it is all about, right? Uh and then we had a discussion about how does she begin to make her mark. And so I had
Why Legal Work Should Create Joy
SPEAKER_00her vision, I had her to do two visions. One vision five years from now, you've got your own firm, right? So we're spending five years soaking up as much as we can about the personal injury world and how money flows and all that stuff, right? And then we're launching our own firm. I said, whether or not you actually do that, the practices that you build and the things you'll pay attention to are going to be important even if you stay here, because guess what? All those old white men are going to leave. They're going to retire one day, and you might be the owner, the runner, the leader of that firm. And so the things that we that you'll build up internally, right, is oh, I'm going to build my own firm, will benefit you there. I mean, and at the end of the day, whichever way you go, right, this is your one life. Like, did anyone, as you went through Harvard, Stanford, big law, did anyone ever tell you, remind you that you have one life to live, that life belongs to you, and that life should be a joy-filled, happy life. And there's no reason why it can't be. And so what I'm about, have been now for many years, and starting to be, I think, to be able to articulate it better, and certainly play left fullback got a lot of interesting feedback.
Wellness Programs Miss The Point
SPEAKER_00Like I would send it to the to the uh well, all the wellness directors around the country, right? The ones who are who want to put all the money into mediation and drug and alcohol rehab and meditate, not mediation, meditation and playing with cats all has a place, probably, but nobody's teaching this thing. Like none of them are saying the practice of law should enable you and give you the tools to have a wonderful, joy-filled life for yourself. Because everything else works out a lot better if your life is wonderful.
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