Category: Baby Steps

When things really do just fall in your lap

by Casey

I love to share when members of the Leave Law Behind community succeed and leave the law. It shows to us all how possible this is.

Below is the email I received last week from an attorney just like you, who had a Free Consult call with me:

Hey Casey,

Thanks for following up.

Strangely enough, the reason I hadn’t contacted you again is because I had a “non law” job opportunity fall in my lap in planned giving at a major university.

I went through a few interviews with an open mind, not totally sure I was interested in making the change yet, but I ultimately decided today to make the leap.

All of that to say, thanks for speaking with me by phone that day. That conversation, and the videos I received from you by email, helped inch me closer to being ready to try something different. You guys are providing a great service.

As she and so many other Leave Law Behind members can attest, these methods simply work.

She left the law.

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My last day as a lawyer

by Casey

“My last day as a lawyer” is the subject line of an email I received recently from a Leave Law Behind Program Member.

He just left the law! His email to me is below:

 

Casey,

I just wanted to send you an email to let you know that my efforts, the course, and your encouragement have paid off. Today is my last day at my law firm. On Monday, I’ll be starting a new job as an insurance adjuster.

I want to thank you for all of the help that you have given me during the process of transitioning out of the law. Your course and your encouragement have been valuable assets in making this happen. Meeting you in person back in December really lit a fire under me to find something new. I just can’t thank you enough!

I’m really excited to embark on a new chapter in my life, and you really helped me to see that there was a way forward for me. I just wanted to share my success with you.

He and I met at our live Leave Law Behind event last December here in San Francisco.

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You are on the right side of history

by Casey

You are reading this right now because you want to leave the law.

You want to leave because of the anxiety you suffer as an attorney, or because you are bored by the subject matter of the law, or because you feel no or little connection with your clients or the firm, or …

But many obstacles block you from leaving.

And one of the main barriers you face in leaving your law practice behind is that the legal community has never really embraced or been open to its members admitting they are unhappy. To revealing they want to leave. To exploring alternative, “non-law” careers.

As such, you can’t share your unhappiness with others in the firm. You don’t want to disappoint your colleagues or friends or family by leaving.

You suffer from the social taboo that you should just grin and bear it and be happy as an attorney and push down any feeling you have that practicing the law isn’t your life purpose.

Well … I’m happy to say that this is all changing, and we’re all going to be the beneficiaries.

An example of this is the talk I’m giving on Monday March 1 2018 at the Bar Association of San Francisco (along with fellow coach Elena Deutsch of WILL) called “Alternative Careers: Take Action Toward the Life You Desire”

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The least glamorous, but most effective tool to help you leave the law

by Casey

The most valuable skill I learned when I was finally ready to leave the law in 2004 was the power of the baby-step.

Babysteps are the best time-intensive-but-still-manageable-build-on-each-other-to-grow-your-confidence-incremental-and-rewarding-forward-moving drivers of progress you can take to effectively leave the law behind for a fulfilling professional (and personal) life.

Babysteps were difficult for me to initially adopt. As an attorney, I wanted to know right now how “it would all turn out”. I didn’t like and wasn’t comfortable with the unknown.

And as a person in today’s day and age, I wanted success now. I didn’t want to wait. I wasn’t comfortable being patient.

This wasn’t a good combination to effectuate change in my life. It wasn’t a good combination to end the dissatisfaction with my job as a lawyer.

But once I became open to using these babystep – again, small non-sexy steps and progress that empower ever growing momentum and confidence and create more and more opportunities – that was the key to my success in launching my non-law, alternative career.

And it’s the success for many people I work with.

I just heard back from a client,

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Leaving the law requires not much more than doing this

by Casey

My 7 year old son is a smart kid. His teacher said he’s very academically advanced and is very passionate about the subjects he likes, such as math, endangered species, fantasy stories and farming.

But she also said that when he is faced with a new, challenging or unclear task, his motivation drops dramatically.

My son will say he doesn’t want to do such-and-such challenging task because he is tired or bored or hungry.

But his teacher observed that my son likely opts out of attempting such-and-such challenging task so as to avoid failing at it.

Does this sound like you?

We all know that we perfectionist attorneys are afraid of making a mistake, especially in attempting to leave the law behind for an alternative career.

We do not want to fail. We may not have faith in ourselves to follow through. We do not want to disappoint others.

We want to please people. We’re ambitious. And we likely haven’t even thought there could be a future beyond just being a lawyer.

And so we don’t act.

But success in leaving the law is not about being perfect.

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Read this ONLY if you have ever wanted to be a non-conformist, dissenter or rebel

by Casey

Yesterday, we talked about the mistake of omission … the mistake we make by not doing something we know we should do.

Another way of saying this is you do not act and live and model a life that lets the world know the gift you have inside of you.

You do not take the time to build the courage to find the best way for you to add value to others.

You do not take the time to be the leader and teacher you can be.

Years ago, Henry David Thoreau put it this way:

“Most men [and women] lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

More recently, motivational speaker Les Brown pushed us by saying:

“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step,

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3 things

by Casey

Three things I’m excited about and wanted to share with you all:

1. I’m planning on doing a live event in San Francisco soon. If you’d like to be one of the first to pre-order tickets, Contact Me and I’ll put you on the list.

2. Love the article “How to Navigate a Career Change” a LLB client who left the law for technology just sent in, to share with you the Leave Law Behind audience. The part around how being older can really be an advantage really resonated with me.

3. Want to take a babystep to leave the law? It’s easy – schedule a free 15 minute time to speak with me. We share experiences, we discuss tips on how to leave, and most of all, you’ll realize you’re not alone 🙂

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How to be famous and successful

by Casey

This past weekend, my wife, two kids and I let out our collective inner geek and visited the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, in the heart of Silicon Valley.

While the toys in the gift shop elicited the most interest from my daughter and son, the museum exhibits were not far behind.

The museum provides a fascinating history of how, going all the way back to the ancient Chinese and Greeks, humans have thought up new ideas, used new tools, and created new processes to find things out, make life easier, and reduce manual steps.

Think the Abacus to the Antikythera mechanism to IBM punch cards to iPhones.

What really struck me though were the personal stories behind all of these inventions.

 

They weren’t always famous and successful

Sure, it’s easy for us now to see how useful all of these tools are. And it’s easy for us now to assume as self evident that these technology inventors would be famous. It’s easy for us now to take for granted the ways the technologies they invented have made our lives simpler, easier and more dynamic.

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The best advice for leaving the law

by Casey

I shot this short video for you (it’s less than 3 minutes long) describing the best advice for leaving the law …

… and if you prefer reading, I jotted below some of the points I talk about in the video.

 

Recently my family and I attended a fantastic free science fair event at the baseball stadium at which the San Francisco Giants play.

We were part of a group of thousands of people on a sunny Saturday, getting to not only play and run around on the baseball diamond, but also to participate in tons of science experiments and activities set up on the field and throughout the stadium: Local companies, museums, science institutes and non-profits set up tents and stands educating us all about insects, chemical reactions, robotics, the environment, physics, curing diseases, traveling to Mars and more.

 

The best advice

One of the participatory exhibits about gravity encouraged my daughter and me to hook a small “ship” made of wooden popsicle sticks powered by a rubber band wound propeller to a thin plastic zip line a few feet off the ground and watch it go.

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