Sean: So I wonder when you told your wife that, Hey, you know what, I think this is what I want to do. How did you figure that out? How did you know that “I want to take the consulting and coaching and speaker road instead”?

Jeff: I told my partners, I told everybody at the firm, we didn't tell the clients yet, but I told them, look, I'm leaving. That's a done deal. And what I did was I just started talking to people. I did not have a new plan. I didn't have a, Hey, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to do this business. And I met a woman named Jill.

I think we just met through networking. We've sat down over lunch. And I remember that lunch there being very emotional for me because she represented a coaching franchise and she started telling me about this. And I thought, well, wait a minute, there's a franchise for coaches. Like it's in a box. Right.

That was a problem. It's a business in a box. I don't have to create all this. I don't have to execute processes and systems. I don't have to create forms. There's the business. All I have to do is coach. And all I have to do is help people grow their business. I know how to grow a business. I just grew a business from scratch.

I just did this and I know how to lead. I mean, I went, I know all this stuff. I'm just going to go help everybody else. And I remember sitting at lunch saying, this is it. Oh my God, this feels so good. This is, I love helping people. And that was a big draw for me because one of the things that really was hard for me in practicing law is I didn't feel like it was helping people.

So I decided to do that. I buy the franchise, do the training. And three years later, I'm out of business. I had failed and I had failed for the first time, really in my life, I'd never failed at anything. I mean, I failed little ways, but I never really failed. I, you know, I was an athlete, played college baseball at a pretty high level.

I did, you know, did well in school, did well in law school and became a part. Did all. I was a winner and that business, we were out of business in three years. Probably one of the biggest lessons in all of that is that yes, we learn from our failures, but only when we take responsibility for our role in those failures. If we don't do that, we don't learn anything.

It took me five years to admit is the business failed because of me. The business failed because I was arrogant. The business failed because I had one successful business. And I figured all I needed to do was just, you know, get some business cards, go out and network and say, here I am, I'm here to save your business.

I didn't do the work, I didn't put in the systems. I didn't put in the sales and marketing systems. I, you know, I went out of the network like crazy, but I didn't really sell because I expected the phone to ring. Why? Because I'm Jeff Nischwitz, I'm a successful lawyer and entrepreneurial lawyer. I mean, I'm the man. And as it, many of us, if any of us have gone through that, we know that doesn't work.

And I remember in about September of 2009, that's why I'm clear on the five years. I stood up in front of an audience of entrepreneurs, and for the first time said the business failed because of me. The business failed because I was arrogant and I didn't do the work. And you know, one of the things we talk about leaders is the importance of being humble.

And a friend of mine, John, a couple of years ago said, Jeff, you really strike me as a very humble man. And he said, I've found that people are humble because they grew up that way. Or they were humbled. I said, no, I'm the second one. I got humbled because I got smacked down, I got smacked down by my own choices.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/leadershipstack

Join our community and ask questions here: from.sean.si/discord

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leadershipstack