A few years back, a book was written that became a New York Times best seller. The author, Malcolm Gladwell, reported his studies on the principles of highly successful entrepreneurs, musicians and well-known athletes. The common theme that appears throughout the book became the subject of his book. In fact, you may have even heard of the 10,000-Hour Rule theory.
Basically, the author explains that, in principle, to become world class in any field, 10,000 hours of deliberate practice is needed. Malcolm contends that getting 10,000 hours of practice allowed the Beatles to become the greatest band in history and Bill Gates to become one of the richest men in the world, and so on.
Whether you subscribe to the 10,000-hour theory or not, I’m sure you’ve wondered why we keep
hearing about firms shutting down offices, or a significant practice group joining a competing firm of similar size and location?
Rarely are any two situations identical, but once we are asked to assist in growing an office or practice group, we usually uncover pertinent information that leads us to believe the growth initiative lacked some basic core fundamentals. For the sake of this article, we’ll call those missteps. These missteps can be avoided by seeking the guidance of a team that has put in 10,000 hours of practice doing just this very thing.
I agree the word doesn’t sound all that threatening, and most firms can handle one or two missteps, but like a hike in the Grand Canyon, the wrong missteps in the wrong direction can lead to, well, you can probably guess. Maybe you can even hear that yodeling sound of another law firm failing in your market?
If you and your team see value in the opportunity to learn about missteps we can help you avoid, please contact us at teamjag@jaglaw.com for a confidential meeting.