What is your measure of success? Is it the amount of blood, sweat, and tears that you put into your business?

Does “hard work” define success for you?

Or is it actually the result of all that sweat equity that matters?

Yes, of course any successful business requires hard work, but that hard work should be channeled appropriately, and should be to some desired end.

It’s not just sacrifice for sacrifice’s sake.

Law school and society at large advocates (implicitly and explicitly) the notion that sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice is a noble and worthwhile pursuit.  I reject this idea, flat-out.

Because what exactly are we talking about “sacrificing”?

Our health?

Our mental well-being?

Time out of our lives?

Time that could be spent with our spouse and our kids?

Frankly, this is time that belongs to your family.

After all, they are the shareholders in your business, and they deserve a return on THEIR sacrifices.

But still, there’s this weird thing where we value “working hard”, regardless of profitability.

This is valuing input over output, and it’s the fast track to burnout.

Instead of defining success by how hard you work, why not measure success by how many people you can help? Or by how much free time away from the office you are enjoying each month?

You can’t help anybody stuck in your office 60 hours or more per week. You run out of steam. You lose focus. Quality of work suffers.

So you have to find a way to make your business run effectively without you, and that’s done through three things:

  • Systems
  • Automation
  • Delegation

This past week at our Discovery Day, we asked our guests and future members a question:

Why did you go into business for yourself?

Here are some of the answers we got:

  • Time
  • Freedom
  • Purpose
  • Authenticity
  • More Control
  • Less Stress
  • To Help People
  • Consistency with values
  • Control my own destiny
  • Make my own schedule
  • Entrepreneurial spirit
  • Wanted to have my own identity/ideology
  • Didn’t want to be stuck working in an office

Believe it or not, not one single person raised their hand and said they went into business for themselves to work long hours and never see their families.

Yet this is what we settle for when we value input over output.

A successful law firm isn’t one that makes you work the hardest, it’s one that helps you meet your personal, financial, and professional goals.

But in order to get what you’ve never had, you have to be willing to do what you’ve never done.

You have to be willing to build systems and surround yourself with a stellar team.

“But RJon, that sounds like MORE work, not less…”

That’s where you’re wrong!

The building of your foundation, when performed correctly, will free up time to do the things that fulfill you. To spend time with your family. To take a vacation. To do the pro bono works that means so much to you.

You will be able to live the life you want to live while your team and the systems you built run the business without you.

This is exactly what our members implement when they make the decision to work with us.

They learn the step by step approach to total freedom.

If you’re ready to stop valuing input over output, and start running a business that works for YOU, schedule an appointment with a member of our team to see what How to Manage a Small Law Firm can do to help you.