Another way of expressing this is that you are responsible for it all and there is nowhere to hide and no one to blame if things do not work out as planned. The good news is that if you get the business, it is yours to take in any direction that you can. You can turn it in a billion dollar operation like Joe Jamail Jr. and you do not need a thousand lawyers to do it.
An example to compare the life of the solo lawyer to would be running the national government. It is very difficult, thankless and tempting work and millions of people depend on you to make it happen but if you don't run the government some other fellow will run it and you may not agree with his direction but you have to endure it. In plain terms, you give up limitless freedom to receive security and protection from being held accountable for making hard and scary decisions.
The solo lawyer also has to be disciplined in the sense that the controls that exist in larger entities are mostly absent and must be replaced with other type of controls. The work load and responsibility to be ahead of other lawyers in knowledge and ability to do the work is still very much there. All this means that the level of planning and organization in a solo operation will be epic. It does not have to be rigid, it just has to be in place.
There is also a word on flexibility, meaning your time is your own or you can show up as you like or you are the boss. In our view, flexibility is more about hitting the areas that you need to than about showing up from 9 - 5 but you must have a routine that allows you to build some form of flow or momentum that you can work with and that can help you crush the competition .
Remember, solo or no, you will be held to the same standards as a larger entity so excuses and incompetence will not suffice.
And you chose to be a solo.
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