Retired Admiral William McRaven’s 2014 commencement address advice was this: “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed … If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.” This advice finds perfect application in our profession, and I have been thinking lately about the importance of perfecting our process.
My wife and I decided nearly 30 years ago that the most fun parents (the ones whose homes were always overflowing with kids and their friends), were disposed to say “yes” more than “no.” We decided that unless we had a really good reason, we would try to be “yes” parents. This led to many unexpected adventures and many learning experiences.
For the past 30 years, I have always looked forward to my haircut because of the man who cuts my hair. Working on the ground floor of our downtown office building for more than 30 years, Winston is a man who possesses a passion and skill for identifying the positive meaning to be extracted from the bumps and bruises we all experience.
Space limitations for this column will not allow all the details of our adventure in adopting Eva and in being clients of a Kenyan lawyer, but the entire experience helped me better understand how our clients feel when they are battling serious problems and engage us for guidance and resolution.
I’ve always been fascinated by the law of unknown consequences. Books have been written and movies have been made about the dominos that fall after some seemingly random act. But most of these stories are negative. We focus less on the positive, perhaps because we hear less about it. Yet I would argue that we have overlooked one of the most important aspects of human existence — the positive impact we can have on others whom we may never see again.
One of the great things about kids is that they can teach you lessons you need to learn in a way that can only come from a child.
In college, I learned about the “hierarchy of needs,” is a five-stage model, depicted as a pyramid by psychologist Abraham Maslow, in which human needs progress from basic needs (food, water and warmth) through psychological needs (intimate relationships) and peaking with self-fulfillment needs (self-actualization). What I did not comprehend as a college student was how many in our country are in situations that do not allow the luxury of fulfillment of psychological needs, let alone the dream of attaining self-actualization.
We will honor 18 attorneys who have achieved 50 years of practice and 62 attorneys who have practiced for 25 years on May 9 at the Woodstock Club for the annual Practice Milestone Celebration. Each of these attorneys has a remarkable story of hard work, dedication and commitment. I wish I could write a column about them all, but I only have room to focus on three 50-year practitioners who have personally impacted me in my career.