Watson’s Formula For Succcess

”    Would you like me to give you a formula for success?  It’s quite simple, really.  Double your rate of failure.  You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success, but it isn’t at all.  You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it. 
    So go ahead and make mistakes.  Make all you can.  Because, remember, that’s where you’ll find success. . . on the far side.”

This quote is by Thomas Watson, founder of IBM so he might just know what he’s talking about.  And I’d like to add-on a couple of ideas Mr. Watson did not address:

1. Notice the title to this blog entry “A” formula for success, not “The” formula.  I recently sold a program to a very successful lawyer who also has chosen to give back and teach other lawyers how to market their own law firms too.  We later ran into eachother and laughed about the fact that we both invest alot of time reading books, listening to programs & attending seminars of people whom those “not” in-the-know would consider to be our competitors.  But you have to constantly challenge yourself, learn new approaches, fan the flames of creativity by exposing yourself to new ideas.  In other words, there are lots of formulas for success and I’d encourage everyone who has read, listened to, attended any of my books, audios, seminars etc. not to limit yourselves to just my approach.

2. The only two common denominators that I see in all the successful Rainmakers I work with are that they focus their practices on areas of the law or with clients or concentrate on aspects of the business of running a law firm that gets them excited; and that they get off their butts and try things. . . in other words they fail ALOT but when something does work, it generally brings with it a very nice reward.

OK, gotta run.  Food’s here! 

Please comment or e-mail me with your biggest failures.  Things you thought would be great but weren’t and most important, what you learned from the attempt. 

RJON