5 Law Firm Lessons Learned from Vacation
A few weeks ago I took a vacation. We packed up our bags and went to Palm Spring, California for 6 days.
I played golf, I jumped in the pool, I went to Stagecoach, I hung with my family, I had a really fun time.
On the way home from the vacation I was reflecting a little bit on our time there and putting it into context with where I originally was in my law firm ownership journey.
I realized something, in fact, 5 things. I wanted to talk about those right here.
1. Your law firm won't fail.
No matter how scary it might seem to leave your business for a few days, going on vacation will NOT spell the demise of your business.
It's simply a fear your subconscious mind creates to mess with you.
When I left for that amount of time I actually got back with more business, not less. My firm was better off, not worse.
This may not be the case for you, because you may not have the systems or framework in place for your business to run while you are gone, BUT you can and SHOULD take a vacation. Your law firm will not fail.
2. You don't need an autoresponder.
I don't believe in out of office autoresponders. I think they are lazy.
The fact is, you can take 30 minutes out of your day and respond to emails that come in that need a response.
And, it should ONLY be 30 minutes IF your law firm is running smoothly with good systems and processes. There should be no fires. There should be no emergencies.
But don't use an autoresponder. It's just not cool.
3. It's okay to relax.
I've been learning this lesson in the context of my law firm over the course of this year more so than just the course of this vacation.
But the truth is this: you don't have to be grinding 24/7 to start a successful law firm.
You don't have to be working all the time on your "vacation."
You can actually relax and enjoy life and NOT feel guilty about the success of your law firm hanging in the balance.
With that being said, however, there is one important point here that must be state - to relax, to slow down from time to time you must be spending all of your other time working on the RIGHT things in your business.
The reason people often have to work extreme hours on their business is that they are wasting 50% of that time working on shit that doesn't matter.
4. But it's your responsibility to be present.
This lesson is primarily for all of you folks out there that have families.
Yes, vacation is a time to get away, to relax, to chill, and to unwind.
But there is still work to be done.
You are responsible for putting in the same amount of work and effort into your family as you are into your law firm. That means when you are on vacation you switch your focus from work to family.
Think of it as a marketing exercise.
You need to be present with your family. You need to put the time in to build those relationships. You have to care.
5. Life always throws you curveballs.
Things always come up, even on vacation.
For us, it was two things - one trivial, one not.
First, we ended up staying in a house that had no internet and shitty cell service. That meant even checking email was difficult.
I was forced to adapt to figure it out.
Second, and more importantly, our youngest son came down with something and had a fever that spiked to 105 degrees. That's some serious stuff.
We had to take him to urgent care, wrap him in wet washcloths, and get him some medicine to try to get the fever down.
