Back when I
was first starting my own law firm I had a client come to me for help
starting his own restaurant. He was a great
chef, but he had no experience and undertook no training in the
marketing or managing of a restaurant. He was “just” a great chef.

Against my counsel he went ahead and opened
his restaurant anyway, with predictably bad results.

Years were subsequently wasted learning
expensive and embarrassing lessons the hard way. That cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars in terms of both
opportunity costs and working capital. Too many hours in the
restaurant, struggling to reinvent the administrative wheel took all the
joy out of his business; and distractions caused by easily avoidable
“emergencies” prevented him from being able to spot market trends and
marketing opportunities. But you will make it different and see the trends and developments in the legal industry.

Consequently, my chef client was always
playing catch-up with other restaurants whose chef-owners were not
nearly as talented as he.
But they invested the
time, before and after, opening their businesses to learn what they
never learned at culinary institute about the business side of the
restaurant industry. And that made all the difference. Keep it also as insights into the legal profession.

So the lesson for all of us is…(original post is at TotalAttorneys.com blog)