News Post

Want to Earn More? Change Your Perspective

When I was a kid one of the games we would play was to stare at a geometric figure, such as the one above, until it would “flip” and we could see the object represented from a different perspective. I know; I’m giving away my age with this mention of the days when kids had to make do with fewer toys and more imagination.

I had that same experience of shifting perspective this morning while reading an article by Ann Guinn titled Self-Limiting Behaviors: How Attorneys Underearn in GPSolo’s Law Trends and News practice area newsletter, and it gave me a whole new outlook on why some lawyers don’t earn as much as they can. Simply put, they choose not to. Or, more specifically, they make conscious choices that are the proximate causes of the failure of their practices to thrive.

Ms. Guinn categorizes these choices to underearn as either passive – the failure, for example, to institute a procedure or make an investment in technology, or active – taking a client when you know deep down inside that he or she cannot afford to pay your fees.

Contrary to what we sometimes tell ourselves, the failure to earn enough is not something that just happens to us. It’s the result of the choices we make. If you don’t think you’re earning what you could, and should, from your practice, check out the article for an eye-opening list of the things you may be doing, or not doing, to sabotage yourself, and to learn how to stop. It just may “flip” how you think about managing your practice and earning more.