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A lawyer told me last night that most of the other attorneys she knows are looking to do something other than practice law. Lawyers are one of the most fascinating breeds of people I know. The ones who go to the top law schools and start in jobs with the top law firms generally have been performing at a very high level for their entire lives; however, when they get out in the real world, a good proportion of these attorneys fail to have fulfilling and successful long-term careers. What this has taught me is that no matter how smart we are, how talented we are, or how much potential we have–there is something else that matters when it comes down to whether or not we will have good careers. It often comes down to being able to do certain simple things.
I have been studying what makes people successful in their careers for as long as I can remember. Some people out there have incredible, truly admirable careers, and they remain successful in every type of economy and under virtually every circumstance. There are others who do not make the most of their careers and are unsuccessful under virtually every circumstance.
There are seven reasons I have identified that determine whether someone will make the most of a career or not:
1. People Who Do Not Reach Their Full Potential Are Complacent. I will never forget that night. I was standing around in a bar in Windsor, Ontario, one summer evening with a bunch of kids from our town, and a girl I had been infatuated with for some time came up and started talking to me, and then asked me out on a date. I had known her since I was probably 6 years old, and she was an accomplished athlete, student, and so forth. She had been dating another guy for at least a few months, who was in college at the time. We had just graduated from high school that spring.
“What about your boyfriend?” I asked her at one point.
“It’s starting to get boring,” she said.
Since I was young at the time, I was still learning about dating and so forth, and this statement came as a real surprise to me. What this girl was saying, in effect, was that she no longer felt challenged, and she wanted to try something new. This girl ended up becoming extremely successful, and I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that she was always challenging herself, and always had been. She was never happy doing anything for long and she always pushed herself to do new things.
In order to be as successful as you can possibly be, nothing is more important than not allowing yourself to be complacent. The most successful people out there are never completely happy with themselves and their level of accomplishment, and they are always pushing themselves to do more and more.
Complacency takes on many forms. If you allow yourself to get too comfortable you will see your growth slowing. Your life will start to feel like a routine–no longer exciting or inspiring. You may be asking yourself “can I do better?” and things like this. If you start to get bored or complacent, then you need to start challenging yourself.
2. People Who Do Not Reach Their Full Potential Rely Too Much on the Opinions of Others. One of the hardest decisions I ever made in my career was to quit a $170,000 year job as an attorney (in 1999) without any idea about what I would then do with my career. As it turned out, this was the best decision I ever made, but it was also incredibly difficult. Everyone around me thought my decision was completely nuts. I cannot even begin to tell you the number of people who told me that I was making a mistake and how many made fun of me for making this choice.
You need to do what is right for you. Never let the opinions of others influence you and your beliefs about what you are capable of becoming–and never fear the opinions of others. When I left the practice of law, what I did right was listen to what was inside of my heart, instead of the opinions of others. In order to reach your full potential in everything you do, it is important that you too listen to your heart and not the opinions of others–either real or perceived.
3. People Who Do Not Reach Their Full Potential Allow Difficulties to Turn into Ruin. The world is full of people who have experienced various setbacks and difficulties in their careers. The difference between those who end up thriving in their careers and those who do not, often comes down to their ability to get through the various difficulties they have had and come out on top.
I know of some attorneys who have been fired more than five times, yet they are still having incredible legal careers. I know of other attorneys who were fired once and were so upset by this that they got into drugs and started having so many problems in their lives and careers that they never recovered. You need to be resilient and to never let negative experiences hold you back. We all have negative experiences; it is what we do with these negative experiences that matters the most. Turn negatives into positives.
4. People Who Do Not Reach Their Full Potential Associate Negative Things with Being Successful. Striving to be successful means being competitive. Every organization has some level of competitiveness to it and every job has some level of competition to it. Many people try to become successful and fail, and when they fail, they feel bad. After some time, people stop trying because they want to avoid the negative feelings associated with trying to become successful, so they try to find jobs that are “safe” and “secure.” Thus they attempt to avoid being exposed to those negative emotions they might feel from trying to become successful.
It is important to understand that these kinds of associations may be controlling your life. I have heard so many people throughout the years say that they would not want a certain position, would not want a certain level of success, and so forth, due to their perceptions that having a certain level of success is negative. Many of the beliefs about what we can accomplish have been instilled in us by others throughout our lives, unbeknownst to us. We may have been given the impression by people who are our competitors that being successful is undesirable. Alternatively, we may just fear the unknown. It is important that you do not associate negative things with being successful and, instead, associate success with a positive outcome, which usually takes the form of a happier life.
5. People Who Do Not Reach Their Full Potential Never Make Success a Firm Must. In order to experience success, you simply cannot accept the substitute for success, which is being average or below average. By refusing to accept mediocrity, people who end up achieving the most and being successful find a way to succeed–regardless of the conditions they are in. They “do what they have to do” in order to be successful.
You need to refuse to accept the possibility of not being as successful as you can be. People who refuse to accept mediocrity look for ways to ensure they make the most of their lives and every situation. Refuse to be average.
6. People Who Do Not Reach Their Full Potential Never Develop a Strategy That Works. To make the most of your career, you need to have goals and to know where you are going at all times. When you set goals, they help guide you toward your destination, and everything else begins to fall into place:
To get ahead in your career and life, it is incredibly important that you have a strategy to get you there. Your strategy is made up of the goals you set and the methods you choose to help you meet those goals. You must have a strategy in order to reach your goals. It doesn’t need to be a “perfect” strategy; what is most important is that you simply have a strategy. It starts with having a clear vision for where you want to go.
7. People Who Do Not Reach Their Goals Do Not Follow Through with Their Plans. Many people have goals and a strategy; however, more important than goals is the follow-through. Setting up systems to make you accountable on a periodic basis is very helpful. You need to have methods for monitoring your progress on a daily and weekly basis, to ensure that you reach your objectives. It can be very difficult to set up these follow-through plans, but the advantages are great.
Have you ever made a resolution to, for instance, run 5 miles a day, or something similar? What most people do is try it for a day or two, or a week or two–and then they give up. Many people are “dabblers” and because they are dabblers they never reach their potential. They try something, but never give it their all. Commitment and follow-through are the most important components of success.
Avoiding these seven negative career traits will help you become the most successful person you are capable of being.
THE LESSON
People who fail to reach their career goals are too complacent, rely too much on the opinions of others, allow difficulties to progress into ruin, and associate success with negative things. You have to establish success as a firm “must” in your life, associate your success with positive things, develop a workable strategy for success, and follow through with your plans. Never be a dabbler or give up in the face of adversity.
About Harrison Barnes
Harrison Barnes is the Founder of BCG Attorney Search and a successful legal recruiter himself. Harrison is extremely committed to and passionate about the profession of legal placement. His firm BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys. BCG Attorney Search works with attorneys to dramatically improve their careers by leaving no stone unturned in a search and bringing out the very best in them. Harrison has placed the leaders of the nation’s top law firms, and countless associates who have gone on to lead the nation’s top law firms. There are very few firms Harrison has not made placements with. Harrison’s writings about attorney careers and placements attract millions of reads each year. He coaches and consults with law firms about how to dramatically improve their recruiting and retention efforts. His company LawCrossing has been ranked on the Inc. 500 twice. For more information, please visit Harrison Barnes’ bio.
About BCG Attorney Search
BCG Attorney Search matches attorneys and law firms with unparalleled expertise and drive that gets results. Known globally for its success in locating and placing attorneys in law firms of all sizes, BCG Attorney Search has placed thousands of attorneys in law firms in thousands of different law firms around the country. Unlike other legal placement firms, BCG Attorney Search brings massive resources of over 150 employees to its placement efforts locating positions and opportunities that its competitors simply cannot. Every legal recruiter at BCG Attorney Search is a former successful attorney who attended a top law school, worked in top law firms and brought massive drive and commitment to their work. BCG Attorney Search legal recruiters take your legal career seriously and understand attorneys. For more information, please visit www.BCGSearch.com.
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Do not be distracted by your insecurities and doubts, or you will never achieve success because you will not allow it to happen. Focus only on the message about your skills and capabilities. Identify your goals and create a gameplan, and fill your mind with positive and hopeful messages that will drive you towards said goal.
In this article Harrison explains how you can ensure success in your career by externalizing your opponents. Your job is like a game; if you work hard, play by the rules of the company and are seen as part of the team you will be viewed as a valuable player for the company. The most significant part of any game is the presence of an opponent. Don’t look for an opponent among your co-workers. Never speak negatively of your team members. Instead, concentrate on the external opponents. External opponents bring you and the team closer as you work towards a common goal. In order for you and your company to succeed it is important to have an external opponent. Harrison advises people to consistently work hard and not participate in the politics. This is a sure way to score big in your career.
In this article Harrison discusses how people who stand for something always do better than those who do not. Companies who stand for something always do better than companies who do not. The most successful companies not only stand for something, but they are completely consistent with their core principles. This is what keeps them going and this is what makes them successful. One of the largest problems that people have in their careers is when they diverge from what they are good at. When you do not stand for something, you divert from your true strength. Everything begins to crumble and slowly fall apart when you are not doing something that you are really good at. The biggest success comes when you stand for something and are good at it.
Companies necessarily seek to employ positive, forward-minded people. A firm’s success depends on their employees, and they seek people who will enhance them rather than merely contribute to the bottom line. People with positive natures, who contribute to a healthy social environment, prove essential to the growth and success of their employers.
In this article Harrison discusses that the meaning you give to things will control the quality of your life. How we feel about ourselves is all due to what we tell ourselves certain things will mean. The meaning you give things is crucial for your career success. You need to choose meanings that make you stronger. You need to ensure you interpret things in a way that serves you and does not hurt you. You need to reach your full potential. Don’t classify yourself as someone who is not fit to succeed at the level at which you’re capable. You need to take charge of your mind to have the career and the life that you deserve.
In this article Harrison discusses the importance of ‘energy’ over technical skills. When people are hiring you they are purchasing your “energy” more than they are purchasing your technical skills. They are interested in your ability to influence the world around you through your energy. When you are marketing yourself and seeking a job, or working in a job, there are essentially two things you are marketing. You are marketing your technical skills, but more importantly you are marketing an intangible sort of energy. The most successful people have mastered the art of projecting positive energy. The better your energy, the more employable you will be and the farther you will go.
You can never become too comfortable if you wish to be successful. Your success will largely depend on your ability to become dissatisfied with your current position. Successful people are never satisfied with the status quo, and constantly push beyond their comfort zone. When do you this and succeed, you set a new standard for normality in your life. Be continually dissatisfied, and always pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone.
Resourcefulness can make you better at everything you do, and separates the truly extraordinary people from the general herd. Do everything within your power to be resourceful in your job search, life, and career to give yourself the best possible chance of achieving your goals, and learn how to employ the resources currently at your disposal for maximum impact.
The most successful people in the world share the common characteristic of sharing, or concentrating on the value that they give back to others rather than on their own growth and profit. Focusing on yourself never leads to long-term success, but leads instead to unhappiness as well as emotional and financial challenges. Your greatest consideration, therefore, should be how you can contribute to others, and how your actions can impact their lives.
The best way to attain your goal is through small, incremental steps on which you can build. Establish a routine, and make sure you are consistently working towards some kind of goal. Start small, and always build upon what you have done before. Most people fail to achieve their goals because they believe everything should happen quickly and at the same time, instead of progressively building upon their past achievements.
Make sure that you are involved in groups that focus on positive things. Your success in life depends on your ability to focus on the outcomes you want, and the focus of the groups with which you associate will in turn shape your own focus. You must endeavor to always choose groups with a positive focus.
Everything you do is a form of preparation for your job interviews, as you are always under some form of scrutiny. The best employees can always spot other good employees, and you cannot “fake it”; merely doing a good job in your work is a form of interview preparation. Always put your all into your work, therefore, even if you do not have long-term plans to remain at your current employment. Switch jobs as infrequently as possible. The time to prepare for a job search is before you even realize that you need to do so.
Your greatest successes will come from some of the smallest actions in terms of meeting people. You will cause a “stacking effect” the more you meet and connect with people; conversely, people cannot connect with you when you are withdrawn and nothing will happen. You must do everything in your power to connect with as many people as possible.
When myriad candidates are applying to limited positions, practicing unusual tactics in your job hunt will prove far more helpful than following the established routine and waiting for positions to come to you. Much like in military strategy, well-planned and unconventional moves can help you conquer your goals without suffering significant losses. You can land an excellent position by focusing on companies’ needs, rather than depending on job and recruiting advertisements.
You can change your life forever by harnessing the power of persistence. Think about the people in your life, and whether they empower you or hinder you in achieving your goals. You must win at all costs, and persist until you succeed.
You need to provide people what they want, otherwise you will not have a job. Although they might not always be the most desirable kinds of jobs, certain jobs always exist because they provide services that people will always require. The only secret to continual employment is to provide a service that people always need; if you do this, and nothing else, you will always find yourself employed. Give people what they want.
Your ability to help people will determine the extent of your success; the more powerful and effective your help, the greater rewards you will receive. One of the rarest and most profound achievements is to follow through on your goals and create a paradigm-shifting idea. The more revolutionary your work, the more people you will affect and the more memorable of a career you will have.
You will greatly benefit your career by helping and promoting your company’s expansion. A common belief is that expansion is fundamentally positive, and a lack of expansion is fundamentally negative. You must be on the side of expansion rather than contraction in every area of your life. All employers seek people who will help them expand, and the more your ability to contribute to this expansion will provide you increased job security and a greater likelihood of being hired.
The ability to fit into your work environment is among the most important parts of obtaining and retaining a job, even more so than your skill level. Fitting in means nothing more than being comfortable in one’s work environment, and making others similarly comfortable. Employers want to hire people who will embrace their approach to business and the world on physical and moral levels, so you must strive to fit in with their worldview.
Focus on what you are doing, not what others around you are doing. There are people to take action towards their goals, and then there people who sit on the sidelines and comment on the first group of people. People who are mostly interested in gossip and watching others usually lack the confidence and determination to take action themselves. The most successful people go account and accomplish things rather than sit back and watch others make things happen.
In this article, Harrison advises you to live the lives you wish to have, do the jobs you want to do, and basically live your dreams to your best possible ability. Life is fleeting and no one knows what tomorrow holds. So Harrison puts forward certain questions – when are you going to start living the life you want and when are you going to take charge of your life. The time to have the career you want is right now, not tomorrow, and not later. You need to take charge of your career and life and no one else is going to do it for you. Your entire life and the quality of it is a product of your decisions. You can have, do, or be anything you want. Do not create alibis for making comprises in life. What separates the best and the happiest people is the ability to stop to making excuses and Harrison wants you to be this person.
Anyone can be up when things are going well, but the real challenge comes when things are not. Do not look at problems, which are inevitable for any person or business, in a negative light; think of them instead as challenges, lessons, or opportunities. There is a silver lining to be found in every problem, and finding that silver lining will enable you to grow.
Understanding what you do for a living is very important for your career. You should understand the generality of your specific profession. You and your career are a product. You need to know where and how to market yourself in the best way possible. You need to be relevant and understand the skills you are offering. Being a relevant product is essential for your success. It’s easy to be relevant when you understand what you are doing and what purpose you serve. Being relevant is more than just getting a job. Being relevant also relates to serving the employers with the skills they need. You need to understand your market and what your customers want. This is the way to stay employed, and it is also the means to continual improvement.
Things will not always go the way that you want them to go, so you must not be discouraged by adversity in your job hunt. When you persist and consistently put forth your best effort, things are much more likely to go in your favor. Also, you must resist others’ efforts to undermine your efforts and potential; focus instead on doing everything in your power to fight on and complete the task at hand.
Having a goal or vision will propel you towards greater career success and happiness. Without a purpose, you will find yourself depressed and ultimately fail to achieve your goals. Do not subscribe to the unrealistic problem that you should never have problems, but instead regard problems as part of your overall growth strategy.
Don’t ever give up, and make the most of the tools at your disposal. Take chances and invest in your best skills, and persist in the face of unfortunate events. Have faith in your considerable work and capabilities, and use them to create value for others.
In this article Harrison discusses what a good hiring manager should look for. Many people who make hiring decisions really do not know what they are doing. In fact, they often make mistakes when hiring. They put too much emphasis on skills and experience. But the single most important aspect of hiring is evaluating the person’s unique outlook on the world. If the person does not have a positive outlook on the world, he/she will bring down the morale of the other workers. The person will harm the company through the negative outlook. The key to success is having the power to stick it out in jobs and finding happiness wherever you are. Hiring people who do good work and are always able to find happiness should be the number one objective of hiring managers.
To reach the goals to which you aspire, you must compare yourself with people superior to you for motivation. Most people prefer to look at life the way they wish it to be, rather than as it truly is. Move out of your comfort zones and face reality. Don’t seek out or compare yourself with the average people around you, as doing so will only mire you in mediocrity rather than push you forward.
You can better market yourself by taking a stand against something. Peoples’ personal beliefs, including the things with which they do not agree, define who they are as people. Standing against something differentiates you from the crowd; when done in the correct manner, without disrespecting others’ opinions, such a stance can help you land your dream job.
Maintaining a routine in both life and work is important to success. Not only do you need to establish a routine, you must make that routine demanding and push yourself to the limit. Budget a certain amount of time each week for networking, applying to jobs, brushing up your interview skills, and following up with employers. Such consistent effort on a daily basis will make a huge difference to your career success.
A recommendation from a powerful person can make a huge difference in your job search; a reference from an influential person makes a tremendous difference to a prospective employer, and thus can be a major advantage for you. When an important person whom the company trusts recommends you, you instantly qualify for positions that may previously have been unattainable. Make the absolute most of your connections with the powerful people in your life, because doing so can instantaneously change your career and life.
You must plant seeds in the minds of others, so that they will be more likely than otherwise to think of you when a future need arises. In planting seeds, you are making people aware of what you have to offer; you must make sure that you are ever present in the minds of your potential employers. Planting seeds is the most effective way to generate top-of-mind awareness, and ensure that the right people remember you at the appropriate time.
Recent immigrants exemplify the benefits of willpower, passion, and excitement in the way that they work so much harder for their goals than the people who have been here for most or all of their lives. Like most Americans, you need to rekindle the spirit of your immigrant ancestors and become hungry for what you want. The entrepreneurial spirit that brought people to America has often faded over time; adopt the fire and work ethic of new immigrants in order to achieve your goals.
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This website is more useful for all the unemployed persons life. Because this contains many companies job related news,so anyone register our name in this website, he confirm got the new job..
For such a self-described “genius” whose additional company, Legal Authority, has been hounding me for my hard earned money in spite of the fact that it was not earned at a big law firm, and who should realize that attorneys other than those working at big law firms regularly receive and read your career advice newsletters, may I suggest that you get off your high horse, at least a tad bit, and cease with the implied degrading comments about non-Ivy League, non-big firm attorneys, you know, about, oh, I don’t know, 95% of the practicing attorneys in this great country of ours. Coincidentally, many of us same “losers” are buyers of your services – or maybe we used to be. You should think about that…how long did you practice anyway, huh? Is that why you’re so hung up on the big law empire???
Very well said!
Unfortunately I discovered that I am totally like the person you described here.I am not at full capacity, and I did not reach my full potential.I do a work which I don’t like, only for the money, and I did not reach my goals in life.A little said, but true!
Your article make my think about my situation.
Thanks!
I agree wholeheartedly with this article. I was successful all my life through schoolwork and career; however, I was fired from my job in 2006 because of excessive sickness. I felt depressed, almost suicidal. I never failed anything in my life. I got to develop perservance.
I’m impressed, I must say. Actually rarely do I encounter a blog that’s each educative and entertaining, and let me let you know, you’ve got hit the nail on the head. Your thought is outstanding; the difficulty is one thing that not enough individuals are speaking intelligently about. I’m very happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something relating to this.
Thank you
Harrison
You are totally full of yourself. If you quit a $200K job with NO idea of what to do next, you are a complete idiot and shouldn’t be giving advice to anyone.