BusinessLawGuy's Blog

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.