There Are No Signs or Aha Moments Except In Hindsight

We live in an age of Oprah-inspired aha moments – that magical point in time when you experience a sudden insight or realization that propels you to action. Ironically,  many lawyers thinking either about starting their own law practice or shifting from one practice area to another sit on the fence forever not so much because they’re deliberatively balancing the pros and cons (as we’re taught to do) but instead, waiting for that flash of light that confirms without doubt that it’s time to leap.

If you find yourself in that category, here’s my aha moment for you:  there’s no such thing as aha moments, or if there are, like love at first sight, they’re rare; more the happy exception than the rule. Most aha moments are the product of hindsight, something we don’t realize until after the fact when we look over our shoulder and see the scattered bread crumbs forming the path that took us to where we are.

You can spend days, months or years waiting for an aha moment to signal that it’s time to start a law firm, write that blog, move cross country – or stop grieving. But there are no signs, and if you keep waiting, you may be stuck forever.  So if you’re thinking about starting a firm, come down off the fence before 2015 closes out. Choose some software, take a look at co-working spaces , get thee to a Meet Up or on the phone to find clients or other lawyers for referrals. You’ll plod through fog and bumpy terrain, but at least you’ll move forward – and years from now, when you tell the story of how you got started, you’ll see, with clarity, the aha moment that you never had was there all along.