I think there's an 83% chance you actually read this.
Hey |first-name|,
Success is the intersection of preparation, opportunity, and LUCK.
Recently, my four year old has been sort of learning 2 different games.
My dad has been teaching him chess.
And I have been playing a lot of Marvel Battleworld with my son. In essence you play as characters from Marvel's universe, they all have powers and abilities and then you roll a die to see if you win battles or not. For the most part, the game comes down to you having a % chance of rolling the right numbers or not to win or lose.
And weirdly, the kid is INSANELY good with some die (and getting better with the math), but's it like hot craps table just without the financial benefit.
As we play these games, and as someone who read Rich Dad, Poor Dad as a parenting book this is really the ultimate breakdown of the book.
My dad is totally poor dad from the book. Not that we were poor by any means, but he delivered mail for the Post Office and so for the holidays and such he would work overtime to get more $$$ for Hanukkah presents.
And Chess is the ULTIMATE poor dad game, because it's really a perfect activity. There's no luck in Chess other than who you play. Once you get there it's the same: same pieces, same rules, same options, etc. It's totally based upon your ability and skill.
And it's NOTHING like life.
In life, you don't have the same pieces, you don't play by the same rules, you don't have the same resources, etc
Heck, we don't really know anything to be black or white, it's mostly all shades of grey and includes some luck.
For example:
School teaches us to memorize a correct answer and regurgitate it; life teaches us that there are a slew of right answers and we need to find the MOST right answer.
So then, how DO we make better decisions? I'm glad you asked that!
How To Make Better Decisions
1) Know Yourself
2) Think About Regret in Advance
3) Use the 10-10-10 Breakdown
4) Work Backwards
5) Pre-mortem
These don't have to build in any order, you might use 1, some or all of these techniques, but start with 1, and then see which others you like
Know Yourself
This helps you think about what you need to make the right decisions. I am a QUICK doer (which is good and bad). To me, things are successful or I learn from my actions. BUT, when it comes time to find a business partner, I want people who are slow doers. If Greg or my wife EVER agree with me, then I KNOW it's a good choice. Otherwise, they stop me from blowing a ton of $$$ of half thought out ideas.
So the more you know about yourself, how you think, why you do things, what appeals to you, the easier it is for you put yourself in the right position to make a good decision.
Think About Regret in Advance
Regret is a SUPER powerful emotion. Oftentimes it is the easiest way for us to decide right or wrong, good or bad, success to failure.
But here's the problem with regret - it only happens after the fact. It's a lagging indicator.
I did X, and I regret it now, so I know not to do X again (Hello butterfly lower back tattoo for all the Ted's out there)
For me, I think about this from the standpoint of my deathbed (I am not official middle aged yet, but I am CLOSE). I like focusing on my own mortality, because here's the thing - most things DON'T matter in the long run. So I can remove a lot of the headache of simple decisions.
I never regret working out, I never regret more time with my kid, I never regret a fun networking event...so often times a small decisions is about "does this get me closer to overall life happiness or not"
But again, for a lot of decisions they're irrelevant in the big picture and it helps me not dwell on them (see above where I explained how I jump into bad ideas)
Use the 10-10-10 Breakdown
How will I think about this in 10 minutes?
10 weeks?
10 years?
It's very similar to my deathbed concept just less morbid. More Dr. Strange time loop then Lost we all die and maybe go to purgatory. But I can't say I do this specific strategy a lot.
Again, most decisions don't hit the 10 year mark, but you might not like a decision in 10 minutes (like eating an entire box of Domino's brownie cookies...although they are amazing)
Work Backwards
Whereas, this one I do ALL. THE. TIME.
No, I don't turn around and just work facing away from my computer...but I do work backwards.
Whatever your crazy B-HAG (big hairy audacious goal) is. Imagine yourself on the end of it having achieved it. Let's say it's that ever elusive 7 figure firm concept (which I HATE...nothing wrong with making 7 figures, but I want you to be profitable and enjoy your life and not just be in service of the almighty dollar) but anyway, I digress
Back to you mentally achieving your goal: What does your firm look to get you there? What does your marketing plan look like? What are you actually doing in those last few days to get there?
So now work backwards from there - let's say it's a 5 year goal. What does year 4 look like? 3? 1? 6 months? 3 months? Next week? Tomorrow? NOW?
Sometimes working backwards like that will um...cough cough, wink wink, nudge nudge help you figure out the HABITS to get to the goals
Pre-Mortem
This is one I don't do, but NEED to.
Instead of doing a post-mortem = this is why this person died.
Do a pre-mortem. In essence do the opposite of the prior one.
Pretend it went wrong NOW. And identify what the issues were, then last steps to prevent those problem.
Again, this isn't one I do, but it's one I SHOULD do a lot.
So How Does This Help My Firm?
I think it's obvious that making better decisions should help you get the firm to the place you want it to be faster (for more specific of a chat about YOU and YOUR firm, we would need to do a FREE consult).
But really, understand how little everyone knows.
It's even worse as a lawyer. At best you might KNOW you have a 90% chance to win a motion. At best, you might KNOW on prior similar cases you get this result. At best, you might KNOW that in the past a webinar got you 50 sign-ups, 30 attendees, 4 consults and 2 clients. But you don't really KNOW that moving forward again.
So make sure you're cognizant of that in all decisions. Pick the ones with either the highest chance of success or the changes of the highest success (your call based upon your risk tolerance).
And then also use that to your advantage. While it would SUCK for a pilot to get on the PA system and tell us there's an 83% chance we arrive on time for our flight, if the airlines told you that in ADVANCE, wouldn't that sound better than flying the friendly skies, doing our best through a challenge time, or whatever the hell their slogan is?
And if a random person told you there was a 13% chance you'd like a certain movie, doesn't that seem more accurate then if they tell you "it's awful and you'll hate it."
So tell clients the truth!
Let them know 95% of your clients don't go back to jail. You get full policy limits on 72% of cases. 100% of your clients need to use their estate plan after they die, and 99% end up avoiding probate court.
Actually market your numbers. Actually give clients a good understanding of their chance of success. Actually realize that life is about a bunch of bets and some luck, but that you can stack the deck in your favor.
Until then, have a wonderful weekend! And just know, there's a 98.2% chance you will get the next newsletter. If you're in the about 2% that unsub, right on! Save the time, best of luck.
But if you're in the more than 98% that will stick with us through thick and thin newsletter, we would LOVE it if you'd share this with someone who will benefit from it by sending them here!
Okay, so this all sounds good, but you’re wondering how to start making these changes. The first important step was visiting this web page, so congrats! You’re already on the right track. The next crucial step is booking a consulting appointment with me so we can come up with a plan and replicate the results of so many others before you.
You can book an appointment here. See you soon!
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