Success Comes in Small Steps

Photo by Sergie Gussav

I received an email from Tony, a former client, expressing his appreciation for my help during our time working together. That is always great to hear, yet what made this note unique was the fact that he and I worked together 3 and ½ years prior to his “thank you” email.
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My first response was “thank you for what?” It had been a while since I heard from him.
He said, ”for helping me find my own clients.” I wanted to learn more about what clicked for him over the past few years, so we set up a call to properly catch up.

When Tony and I started working together, everyone liked him. Clients and colleagues. He was also an excellent attorney. His main challenge was finding clients on his own. He was an 8-year partner who did exceptional work and yet had few, if any, clients of his own.

Over the 6-month coaching program, I told Tony that acquiring the tools and insights to find his own clients would not guarantee success unless he invested the time into BD on a regular basis. It would be like learning how to golf and then never going to the driving range or golf course to commit what you learned to muscle memory.

Tony told me in our catch-up call what the game-changer was for him – committing to 15 minutes of BD a day, usually first thing in the morning.

Small manageable steps that didn’t take up much of his day but added up over time.  It is like getting in shape to run a marathon. It doesn’t happen overnight. You must build up the running endurance in small increments over time.

Similarly, losing weight in a healthy and sustainable way won’t work by fasting over a couple of weeks. It is more realistic to replace bad foods with healthy foods slowly over time.

Developing any new behavioral habit requires discipline and consistency. Instead of trying to do too much all at once, consider doing a little bit over a longer period.

Tony was a classic example of someone who found a way to change by taking small achievable steps. In doing so, he managed to commit it to muscle memory where he no longer had to think about it, he just did it.
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Tony also happened to mention in our catch-up call that he is now one of the firm’s top revenue generators and the Chairman of the litigation practice.