“Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify, seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form, if that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man. Resistance  has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.”
The War of Art, Stephen Pressfield.
You will know, if you have followed my blog, that Tom Peters is a huge inspiration. I have never met him or attended a seminar of his. My only interaction has been through his written work, and more latterly Twitter (@tom_peters).
I have made many references in my posts to the best book that I read in 2010, namely The Little Big Things. I have included below one of the videos that Tom posted to accompany the book. Apologies if I have already directed you to it but it is one of the most powerful messages from the book: the calendar never, ever lies.
You may want to chastise me and say: “I know that stupid” but when it comes to Business Development, Social Media or good old fashioned selling, please don’t talk about it if you are not prepared to make it a priority. And not just a priority because it is written down. NO it has to be quantitatively represented in your diary.
I have listened to a lot of people talk about one practice or another that they need to get to grips with. Well, guess what, if are not spending time on it, then you will never get to grips with it.
If social media is a priority, how much time is each lawyer committing to it? Equally how much of your minuscule marketing budget have you committed to developing your on-line presence.
As Tom Peters makes clear in this video, if something is a priority – “We want more referrals” – then what the bloody hell are you doing to make sure that everyone in the firm is giving it their undivided and meaningful attention to it. You measure green time, you may measure red time but what about all the rest?
Lawyers (and all professionals) are some of the World’s worst procrastinators. They can always tell you why something cannot be done. But if they serious about making a difference, then they have to work hard (and smart) on bringing about whatever practice it is that they want to change.
I hope you enjoy the video as much as I do.
~ Julian ~