The Man On The Dock

I hope you’ve had a great weekend. And I don’t say that in jest.

Even with everything going on in the world today there is still so much for you and me both to be thankful for.

After all, if we are strong enough, we can GROW our businesses during these turbulent times.

Not every type of business owner can say that right now so I for one, am grateful.

But we have to be strong enough. And these tough times reveal a lot about the inner strength (or lack thereof) that many people are operating with.

So here’s what happened today.

Notice I did not say "to me". The world does not act upon me. I act upon the world. That’s not a macho thing, it’s a perspective about my life and my relationship with the world. Saying that I "act upon" the world doesn’t mean I can control everything around me. What it means is that I have choices and I can act on those choices. And my actions have an impact on the world. As opposed to people who reveal a quiet belief that they are victims of the world. They say things in their inner dialogue like "here’s what happened to me". Notice the difference? Check your inner dialogue.

Anyway, so what you need to know is that I have been a boater all my life. I have thousands and thousands of hours on boats. I even lived on a boat for one semester in law school.

What you also need to know is that if you have never experienced it before, one of the quiet joys that I think all boaters enjoy (modestly) is when you arrive to a dock and get the wind and the tides and the angles and the timing just right and you slide the boat perfectly into position gently alongside the dock. The only thing that makes it even better is when there are a lot of people standing around.

Seriously, if you are a boater you know what I mean. We don’t like to admit it publicly but it’s a thrill.

Well, that’s not what happened today. This morning I took Taye Astuya (my 4 & a half-year-old son) down to the dock and we went for a little Papa & Taye cruise around the bay, a quick stop at the fuel dock to top-off and then back home. So far, so good. It is a very breezy day in South Florida, which means the wind was trying to keep our boat from leaving the dock when we left. And the wind was pushing us hard at an odd angle back toward the dock upon our return.

I don’t know exactly what happened. It’s no one’s "fault". I’ve actually docked in similar conditions many times before. But I suppose today I was having an "off" day. It’s been a very trying week. I’ve worked more in the past 6 weeks than in the past 12 months!

Thankfully I made some choices ten years ago that lead to some options five years ago to make additional choices which lead to more choices being available to me 24 months ago which cause me today to be largely insulated from a lot of the "daily grind" that I know some of you reading this right now consider "normal". My normal nowadays is a lot less stressful than it was ten years ago. And even today what I’m "complaining" about is mostly the stuff I used to fantasize about so I’m not really complaining if you know what I mean.

So the bottom line is this, I lost my attention. I took my eye off the ball. I got distracted. I wasn’t at my best. And the next thing you know the boat was pushed sideway T-boned across two pilings it was supposed to be in-between and parallel to. To make matters worse I heard the CRUNCH of some barnacles on the midship side (front piling) and port motor cover (rear piling). So there I was, stuck with the wind pushing hard against the pilings. I had to THINK. But first I had to get control of my thinking.

Years of experience boating was good to have because it meant I knew I had the skills.

A well-managed boat was helpful because it meant I knew I had the tools.

What I needed to get control over was my MINDSET.

I am SO GRATEFUL that I had the presence of mind to think my way through the situation. Because I could have easily acted in a way that scarred Taye and made him afraid of the boat and boating for life!

How many law firm owners do you know who right now are so visibly stressed at home that they’re basically poisoning the minds of their kids so they will never know how great it is (not joking) to be a business owner who gets to be at choice with the world and enjoy real freedom; That is, rather than running their firms as a real business they are tolerating it being operated with no business plan, no marketing plan, no sales plan, no documented systems staff can follow and no financial controls.

And then it happened…a man called out from the dock "Do you need some help?"

Now, fortunately, I have invested more than a decade on mindset and personal development. I have battled and fought and mostly killed my ego a long time ago. So without any hesitation and no sense of shame or embarrassment, I cheerfully replied: "YES, I DO!"

The rest of the story is probably only interesting if you’re a boater and want to know some of the technical things I’ve planned-ahead for that made it a relatively simple matter to maneuver the boat from a horrible position to a perfect position and in only a matter of minutes. If you’re interested in that, reply and tell me about your boat or your last boat or your next boat and I’ll share some tips I’ve learned along the way that may save you a lot of grief (and gelcoat repairs) some-day.

But here are the two nuggets I hope you’ll take away from this:

I got control of my mindset and was able to navigate a very tricky situation.

I was able to do so because I have done the work to move past my ego and ask for/accept help when it’s clear that I need it.

Think about it… how many lawyers do you know who would have allowed (who regularly allow) their ego to stand in the way of a sincere offer of help…even when it’s so obviously needed?

And I know that right now, with the Coronavirus driving most of the country and economy to a standstill over the past 6-8 weeks, many small law firm owners do need the help to continue to grow their businesses.

That's why my team and I have created a website FILLED with complimentary resources to help you help yourself make better choices and take more profitable actions that will make your law firm more profitable during and especially after these crazy times are behind us.

Please click here to visit www.LawFirmPandemicGrowthResources.com and I’d appreciate if you’d please forward this email or just the link to all the lawyers you know who own their own law firm and could use some help from the man on the dock.

My team and I are the man on the dock throwing you a life raft.

Grab it!

Happy Sunday

~ RJon

P.S. We are holding a limited number of complimentary sessions to help you make sure you have a plan to grow your law firm through any economic environment. You can book one of these complimentary sessions with my team by clicking here, but I suggest you do before we fill up for the upcoming week... On that call my team can help you discover a strategy to help fuel your law firm's growth, despite everything else that is going on due to the COVID-19 situation.