BusinessLawGuy's Blog

I had coffee with a managing partner last week who made an observation that stuck with me. He said he could predict which attorneys in his firm would become rainmakers by watching how they treated the receptionist, the mailroom staff, and the cleaning crew. It wasn’t about their legal skills or their pedigree from prestigious law schools. It was about something far more fundamental and telling about their character and long-term potential.

The principle of elevating everyone you encounter isn’t just feel-good philosophy wrapped in corporate speak. It’s smart business practice rooted in practical reality. In professional services, particularly in law firms, your reputation precedes you into every room, every negotiation, and every potential client relationship. That reputation gets built through countless small interactions with people at every level of the professional ecosystem. The paralegal you dismiss today might become a general counsel tomorrow. The junior associate you mentor could refer significant business your way in five years. The court clerk you treat with respect will remember your professionalism when you need a favor during a tight filing deadline.

I’ve witnessed this dynamic play out repeatedly in my practice. One attorney I know always took time to learn the names of security guards, administrative assistants, and IT support staff at every office building he visited. This wasn’t calculated networking; it was genuine respect for people doing important work. Years later, when he was pursuing a major client housed in one of those buildings, the security guard remembered him and provided insights about the company’s culture and decision-making process that proved invaluable in winning the engagement. Meanwhile, another lawyer I encountered consistently treated support staff as invisible obstacles to his important work. Word travels fast in professional circles, and his reputation for arrogance preceded him, costing him opportunities he never even knew existed.

The mathematics of professional relationships make this approach even more compelling. Every person you encounter knows other people, and those connections form an intricate web of influence that extends far beyond what’s visible on organizational charts. The bookkeeper at your client’s company might be married to a procurement officer at a Fortune 500 company. The court reporter in your deposition could be related to a partner at a competing firm who’s looking for co-counsel on a complex matter. When you consistently elevate others through genuine interest in their perspectives, respectful communication, and acknowledgment of their contributions, you’re making deposits into a relationship bank account that compounds over time.

The most successful professionals I represent understand that elevating others isn’t about being nice for its own sake, though kindness certainly matters. It’s about recognizing that every interaction is an opportunity to build your reputation as someone worth working with, someone who sees the value in all people regardless of their position on the corporate ladder. This mindset transforms routine encounters into relationship-building opportunities and turns everyday professional interactions into investments in your long-term success. Your calendar reveals your priorities, but your treatment of others reveals your character. Both matter immensely in building a sustainable practice and a meaningful career.

Constant and deliberate education remains the ultimate appreciating asset. Education is not a one-time transaction but rather a flower that requires ongoing nurturing, attention, and care to fully bloom. The more you learn, the more opportunity you will create for yourself and continue to grow.

The most successful business leaders understand that knowledge acquisition follows the same principles as compound interest. Each new concept mastered creates connections with existing knowledge, thereby exponentially increasing your knowledge. This compounding effect explains why top performers in any industry consistently take the time for deliberate learning, regardless of their already packed schedules. They remain curious, want to learn more, and know doing so will lead to continued success.

One misconception is that substantial education mostly happens when you’re young. This is flawed thinking that costs businesses in areas such as talent and innovation. I remember 60 year old retired doctor who started law school when I did. He could have dismissed going back to school as being “for the young folks.” His willingness to engage with complex new concepts led to a second career in law and as an expert witness. This gentleman could have been fine remaining retired and finding activities to fill his days but instead he came out of his additional schooling well ahead of those he was competing against who lacked his decades of experience with people, with the business of medicine, and what that experience and life had taught him.

Lifetime learning operates as both offense and defense. Offensively, it positions you to recognize emerging opportunities before they become obvious to the masses. Defensively, it prevents the obsolescence that silently erodes career capital in an era where the half-life of professional skills continues to shrink. When you think about succession planning, the most valuable team members aren’t necessarily those with the most impressive academic credentials, but rather those who demonstrate intellectual humility and learning agility, which are traits that allow them to navigate uncertainty with confidence.

Education, like a perennial flower, requires seasons of intense growth followed by periods of integration and application. True mastery develops not from passive content consumption but from the deliberate process of testing new knowledge against real-world challenges. This approach in which you learn, apply, reflect, and adjust creates professionals who bring both depth and adaptability to their organizations. It follows that it is a fundamental truth that in business, as in life, education isn’t something you complete, it’s something you become.

Countless professionals have sabotaged their own careers without even realizing it. They make decisions that seem logical in the moment, then spend years wondering why they’re stuck in positions that don’t fulfill them or advance their goals or career. The uncomfortable truth is that most career stagnation isn’t the result of bad luck, office politics, or a challenging economy. It’s the cumulative effect of choices that prioritize short-term comfort over long-term growth. When you consistently choose the path of least resistance, you become a victim of your own decision-making patterns.

The most common trap is what I refer to as “comfort zone creep.” Professionals accept roles that match their current skill set perfectly, thinking they’re being strategic. They negotiate for familiar responsibilities, seek out teams where they already know everyone, and gravitate toward projects that won’t challenge them too much. This feels safe and manageable in the short term, but it’s career suicide over the long haul. Growth requires discomfort, and when you systematically avoid discomfort, you systematically avoid advancement. If you take the challenging assignment you’re not quite ready for it will provide you with the potential opportunity to move past the person who only accepts work they’ve already mastered.

Another destructive pattern involves letting other people make decisions about your career trajectory. If you allow those above you to dictate your next move without ever articulating your own professional vision you become a passive recipient of whatever opportunities happened to cross the desks of others. Wouldn’t you rather be the active architect of your own career? This abdication of responsibility feels easier because it removes the pressure of choice, but it guarantees mediocrity. When you don’t advocate for specific roles, projects, or advancement opportunities, you signal to your organization and those around you that you’re content with whatever they decide to give you.

The financial decisions you make also create long-term career limitations you might not anticipate. For example, taking on lifestyle expenses that require your current income level eliminates your ability to make bold career moves. When your mortgage, car payments, and discretionary spending consume most of your paycheck, you can’t afford to take strategic risks. I’ve seen talented lawyers stay in firms they despise for years because they can’t afford the temporary income reduction that comes with switching to a different firm, a different practice area, or starting their own firm. They become prisoners trapped by their own spending choices.

The solution requires brutal honesty about your decision patterns and their long-term consequences. Start by considering the choices you’ve made over the past two years. Which decisions were driven by fear, convenience, or external pressure rather than your actual career goals? Identify the moments when you chose comfort over growth, and consider what different choices might have looked like. Then commit to making at least one professionally uncomfortable decision each quarter. Volunteer for the project that scares you, apply for the role you’re not quite qualified for, or have the difficult conversation with your boss about your advancement goals. Your future self will thank you for the temporary discomfort these choices create, because they’re the only path to the career you actually want rather than the one you’ve accidentally built through passive decision-making.

As an attorney, I often focus on the immediate task at hand – reviewing the revised document from opposing counsel, the brief due next week, the client meeting tomorrow, or the upcoming deposition. Over time I’ve learned that there’s profound wisdom in recognizing that each professional encounter serves as an audition for opportunities I can’t foresee. When I started my career, I didn’t anticipate how the seemingly mundane assignments forced upon me would prepare me for running cases and negotiating and documenting large transactions years later. The attention to detail required for me to complete those early projects built a foundation that, over years, helped me to grow into where I am today. It all was part of the steps I took that unlocked opportunities throughout my career.

The business world operates under this same principle, though many professionals fail to recognize it. That presentation you’re giving to a small internal team? It’s rehearsal for the board meeting that might come a few years later. The difficult conversation with an underperforming employee? It’s preparation for managing a corporate restructuring that hasn’t yet appeared on the horizon. Those who approach everyday tasks with excellence invariably find themselves “mysteriously” prepared when major opportunities arise. The reality is there’s no mystery because they’ve been unconsciously auditioning for new and larger roles all along.

This perspective transforms how you should approach professional development. Rather than viewing career growth as a series of discrete milestones or credential acquisitions, it helps to recognize it as a continuous performance where the audience changes without announcement. You may impress a seemingly insignificant client only to find opportunity down the road when that same client becomes CEO of a large company years later, and remembers the exceptional service you provided. When you take the time to explain complicated issues and ideas to colleagues in clear language you’re honing your communication skills, which will be invaluable when you later have the chance to transition to leadership. These aren’t coincidences. These are returns on investments you have made without knowing precisely what dividends you may receive.

I have observed that this mindset proves invaluable for business people who continually strive to learn new things and keep up with fast-changing technology. When you simply follow your intellectual curiosity you put yourself in a position to lead. The connecting thread isn’t luck or prescience but approaching each opportunity or the unknown with the understanding that mastery compounds in ways you can’t anticipate.

The most successful professionals I know share the common trait of performing as if every interaction matters, because experience has taught them it does. This doesn’t mean living in anxiety about perfect performance. Instead, it means bringing authentic engagement to your work regardless of its apparent significance, or lack thereof. Whether you’re drafting a routine motion, reviewing a standard agreement, or preparing for that regular meeting, you’re developing capabilities for challenges and opportunities that haven’t yet revealed themselves. In the interconnected worlds of business and law, your performance now isn’t just about today’s outcome, it’s an investment in opportunities that exist beyond your current field of vision.

I was speaking with someone recently who told me “you find time to do what is important to you” and it struck me. It speaks to all facets of life from family to business to hobbies. The list is specific to you. This statement should cause self-reflection for you. It does for me.

When someone I know tells me they “don’t have time” to review to do certain personal or business tasks, what they’re really saying is that those tasks aren’t priorities. It’s a hard truth I’ve learned through practicing law and life in general. A related truth is that we all have exactly the same twenty-four hours each day, and we allocate them according to what truly matters to us. I see this play out constantly.

If you “somehow” find time to attend every one of your daughter’s soccer games you aren’t just lucky with your schedule. Instead, you’ve made a deliberate choice about what deserves your attention. This thread follows through on all decisions you make about your time in your professional and personal life.

This also principle cuts both ways in the business world. I’ve seen founders who claim they can’t find time for proper legal documentation but spend hours tweaking their logo. This makes a statement about priorities, not time constraints (and maybe about whether the new business has sufficient capital). I’ve watched companies implode because founders didn’t “have time” to create clear partnership agreements, only to later spend years and fortunes in litigation that could have been avoided with a few hours of preventative work. When you point this out to people, they often get defensive, but the mathematics of time allocation doesn’t lie. The universal truth is that we invest our limited hours in what we truly value.

All of us confront this reality repeatedly. I have had friends and colleagues who couldn’t find time for regular exercise until a doctor delivered some concerning news about their health. Suddenly, they “found” time to workout a few days a week. The time hadn’t magically appeared them on their calendar. They simply reprioritized. Maybe they shifted client calls, delegated certain tasks, or sacrificed some evenings. The time was always there. What changed was their recognition of what deserved that time, of what was important to them and they valued.

The most effective business leaders I represent understand this principle intuitively. They don’t try to “find time” for important tasks. They start by blocking time for what matters most and allow everything else to fill in around those priorities. One person I deal with maintains what he refers to as “sacred weekly blocks” for strategic thinking, team development, and family time. When urgent matters arise, he doesn’t sacrifice these priorities. Instead, he makes hard decisions about what lower-priority items can be delayed, delegated, or eliminated. He told me it was difficult to do this at first, but before long these blocks of time became non-negotiables that ride his calendar weekly.

So the next time you catch yourself saying you “don’t have time” for something, whether it’s reviewing that contract, developing your team, or having dinner with your family, try replacing that phrase with the more honest “it’s not a priority for me right now.” This slight change in language will force you to reckon with your true values. If you’re uncomfortable with how that sentence sounds, that discomfort is valuable information. I challenge you to realign how you spend your hours with what you claim matters most to you. After all, your calendar doesn’t lie. It reveals what you truly value, regardless of what you say.

All of us have been conditioned to worship at the altar of efficiency. I’ve watched countless people try to optimize their schedules down to the minute, transforming their professional lives into a series of predictable patterns. But this relentless pursuit of routine deadens our capacity for wonder, to think outside of the box. It’s a fact that routine is the enemy of awe and discovery, and this enemy has infiltrated our work lives, our strategies, and ultimately, our innovation potential.

The legal profession is particularly susceptible to routine’s dulling effects. Take attorneys who draft contracts using templates, organize cases with standardized protocols, and approach problems through established frameworks. This systematic approach does deliver consistency, but at what cost? When forced to step outside these patterns it’s much easier to consider and come up with potential strategies for novel legal questions or complex legal situations. In such situations you need to be in a place to discover perspectives that remain invisible when you stay within your comfortable patterns. When you break free of routine and give yourself time to really think, understanding suddenly expands. This is how significant breakthroughs happen.

Consider how routine manifests in your own life. Your morning coffee from the same vendor, the predictable rhythm of weekly meetings, the familiar faces across the conference table. These patterns provide comfort and efficiency, but they also construct invisible barriers around your thinking. The predictable never produces awe. The expected never inspires transformation. The comfortable never drives innovation. The next time you find yourself moving through your day on autopilot, recognize this as a warning sign that you’ve surrendered to routine.

What separates truly exceptional business leaders from the merely competent is their willingness to disrupt their own patterns. Deliberately shake up your routines by changing your physical environment or seeking unfamiliar perspectives. Leaders create conditions where awe becomes possible. They understand that breakthrough thinking rarely emerges from methodical processes but instead from moments when our minds encounter the unexpected. When that happens we’re forced to reconsider fundamental assumptions. This gives your mind the space to come up with amazing thoughts and ideas.

The practical implications for you are substantial. Take the time to think through the calcified routines you’re in that are masquerading as “best practices.” Create deliberate space to get out of the routine or norm for a chance to have encounters with the unfamiliar. Business should reward team members who challenge established patterns with positive results. As an attorney, I typically advise clients on how to reduce unnecessary risks, but in this one critical area, I encourage precisely the opposite approach: risk the discomfort of abandoning routine to rediscover the competitive advantage of the awe and wonder of your mind and the world around you. The course of your future depends on it.

Get out and do things with other people. We live in a large world and the pleasure from experiencing new people, places, and things provides energy, ideas, and motivation This also includes going away and hopefully disconnecting. When you do this you remember how important experience is and it can change or empower your thinking.

If you’re the workaholic it’s even more important for you to do this. And yes, I mean you should stop checking email from the time you wake up until you go to sleep. Focus on the people you’re with and new experiences. This is when you come up with amazing ideas for the future that won’t come to you when you’re in your ordinary routine.

It is no secret that hard work is required for success. And there are times you must work harder than others and longer hours. Getting ahead does not come easy. But, as important as giving your all for your career or business, you have to have down time too. And I don’t mean sleep.

You may be lucky enough to take a big trip. This gets you out of your office and frees you from routine and day-to-day thought patterns. It can allow you to think about your personal and business priorities. Sometimes you need to be experiencing something new outside of your everyday life to have the time and space to think in this manner.

Anyone can do this and it doesn’t mean we all need to do something crazy or go somewhere far, far away. It can be going to a new restaurant. It can be being a tourist in your home town – hint for those in the Phoenix area: go to the Musical Instrument Museum or take your children to the Science Center (you will like it too). It can be going to a city in your home state or a nearby state you haven’t visited before for a short or long weekend. I find most places have enough things to do for a three to four day weekend type trip. The point is to branch out and think outside of your usual box.

Don’t put off having new experiences for the future or retirement because that day may never come. Find new experiences that fit within your budget and the time you can make, whether on a Saturday or for a week long vacation. Doing so will help you to have shared experiences and a chance to think outside your box.

In the competitive landscape of business, we often become consumed by working harder and longer than others as some type of badge of success. In the legal profession this comes in the form of billable hours, client demands, and the relentless pursuit of career advancement. Yet, a recent event has caused me to think about an uncomfortable truth about my profession and business in general: our time is fundamentally limited, and no amount of legal or business expertise can negotiate an extension on life’s most binding contract.

The unexpected passing of a 35-year-old attorney who was a friend of mine brought this home to me in the past week. A nice smart attorney with a young family and a promising career, he embodied the dedication and analytical skills the legal profession demands. I recently watched part of the first day of the NCCA Men’s Basketball Tournament with him and others and a few weeks later he is gone, leaving behind grieving family and friends, as well as unfinished business both professional and personal. This stark reminder of mortality brought to mind the risk-reward analysis we all seem to apply to our lives and careers. This includes the thought it won’t be us even though life clearly comes with no guaranties.

From a strictly business perspective, operating at maximum capacity without adequate downtime represents poor resource management. The human capital that drives legal practice and business generally requires maintenance and rejuvenation for each of us to be able to deliver optimal performance. We all need to implement sustainable life practices. This means allocating appropriate time for connection with family and friends, personal interests, and experiences that generate joy and fulfillment. These all are assets that appreciate differently than professional achievements but yield invaluable returns.

Examine where your hours are being allocated and whether this distribution aligns with your life objectives, not merely your professional goals. Are you investing sufficient time in relationships that matter? Are you experiencing the activities that bring you genuine satisfaction and joy? Have you deferred too many personal aspirations to some hypothetical future date? Depending on your answers to these questions you may want to consider diversifying your time portfolio to try to build wealth in all aspects of your life. Balance is a false goal and unachievable but with effort you can strike a better balance.

The world of business has traditionally celebrated a culture of sacrifice and delayed gratification, but perhaps the wisest counsel is to realize nothing last forever and strike a more immediate balance. Work with diligence and purpose when you work, then disconnect with equal commitment to engage fully with life beyond work. Call the family member or friend you’ve been too busy to connect with. Book the trip you’ve been postponing. Pursue the hobby that brings you joy. Don’t focus only on work and lead a life insufficiently lived. Know that a well-balanced life may be the most sophisticated legal or business strategy of all because it honors both our professional obligations and our fundamental human need for meaning and connection.

Many times when a new client walks into my office they’re avoiding something. Maybe it’s a tough conversation with a business partner, a challenging negotiation with a vendor, or that dreaded discussion about succession planning. Through those interactions I’ve observed a universal truth, which is that the conversations we resist most are typically the ones we need.

Hard conversations create clarity where ambiguity festers. In my practice, I’ve watched businesses fail because founders avoided discussing their diverging visions on important issues until irreconcilable damage had been done. I also have witnessed struggling businesses grow and succeed after partners finally addressed the elephant in the room. These difficult dialogues aren’t pleasant in the moment but they prevent the slow erosion of trust and communication that can quickly escalate into issues or litigation.

The professional benefits extend beyond conflict prevention. When you cultivate the habit and environment of engaging in challenging conversations rather than sidestepping them, you develop a reputation for directness and integrity. Clients, employees, and colleagues know where they stand with you. This transparency builds trust that pays dividends throughout your career. Over the years it has become clear to me that the business owners most respected in their industries are those willing to have straightforward discussions about difficult subjects.

On a personal level, avoiding tough conversations takes a tremendous psychological toll. The mental energy expended worrying about, planning around, and delaying inevitable discussions is exhausting. The time you spend playing what I refer to as the “hypothetical game” not only wastes time but almost never is close to how the real conversation goes. We all know that you feel physically and emotionally lighter after addressing long-avoided issues, even if the outcome isn’t ideal. That is because there is relief in no longer carrying the weight of unspoken words and issues. In fact, it creates freedom in your mind where instead of worry about “that” conversation you have space for creativity, strategic thinking, and genuine connection, which are essential ingredients for both business success and personal fulfillment.

Starting today, identify one conversation you’ve been avoiding and commit to having it within the next week. Prepare thoroughly, approach it with respect and clarity, and focus on solutions rather than accusations. Your initial discomfort will pale in comparison to the long-term benefits. Remember that your willingness to engage in difficult dialogues isn’t just good business practice, it’s an investment in your career and personal well-being. Over the years, I’ve never once had a client tell me they regret having a hard conversation while I’ve had many tell me they regret avoiding one.

Sometimes inspiration comes from interesting places. I heard the above quote last night spoken by a character in a movie. The quote is from Dolly Parton, and it struck me. It clearly encourages self-discovery and intentional living generally, but I looked at it in the context of the professional realm and finding your authentic business or professional self. By this I mean finding your competitive advantage(s). Dolly didn’t directly result in my finding my authentic attorney self, but her words speak to what my professional practice has become over time in profound ways.

When I first entered the legal profession, I expected to emulate the the commercial litigation attorney who was my first professional mentor by working for someone like him and practicing in a specific niche for my entire career. This approach ended up feeling like wearing an ill-fitting suit because it restricted my natural abilities to connect with people and generate different types of legal work.

I was lucky enough to start my journey of figuring out my professional path from different attorneys and firms I worked for during my first decade in practice. Instead of staying only with commercial litigation or choosing a different niche or specialty, I focused on a few areas of the law that I had learned, enjoyed, and which I told myself connected or overlapped. It was what I needed to think to develop the broader practice I have enjoyed in the years that followed.

The breakthrough came when I recognized my strengths in connecting with people and developing business. This was based on being able to clearly communicate, being a creative problem-solver, and building genuine client relationships. By embracing these qualities rather than suppressing them, I developed a distinctive approach that attracts clients who value these specific attributes. It helped that I enjoy speaking with people and learning about them. Everyone has any interesting story if you ask the right questions.

I discovered that authenticity in a legal practice creates a ripple effect of benefits. Clients sense that I’m operating from a place of genuine strength and conviction. This makes them more likely to trust my judgment, follow my counsel, and turn into long-term clients and referral sources. I figured out it is a positive to show clients you care about them and their situation whether they have been wronged or are trying to obtain the best result when they have made a mistake.

This principle extends beyond my individual practice to firm culture and business development strategy. Law firms that clearly define their identity attract compatible clients and talent. Attempting to be all things to all people typically results in mediocrity across the board. The most successful legal practices I’ve encountered have clarity about their unique position in the market and lean into these strengths unapologetically. For my firm that is our defined culture, the JW Way (https://www.jaburgwilk.com/jw-way-fundamentals), and knowing that we generally connect well with entrepreneurial clients and business owners.

The journey to professional authenticity requires honest self-assessment, feedback from trusted colleagues, and sometimes the courage to pivot away from lucrative but misaligned opportunities. This is about deliberate evolution aligned with your core values and natural talents. By taking the time to think about what these are and lean into them you’re figuring out who you are and investing in yourself. For me, knowing precisely who I am and operating with purposeful authenticity is the foundation of my professional success. If you focus on figuring out who you are and purposefully course correct to follow that it will be the first step in many on your path to success.