Lessons From a Punk Rock Lawyer 3: 5 Simple Clichés for Success

Blogging is important. Blogging is hard. I feel like I'm just repeating tired clichés and not adding anything to the blogosphere. Then I read this great tweet from one of my favorite tweeple, God. "TheTweetOfGod: The first habit of highly effective people is coming up with short lists of clichés and passing them off as wisdom." --http://twitter.com/TheTweetOfGod/status/205076466503909376 So here is my short list of clichés for success on both punk rock tours and law practice. Please accept these as wisdom. 1. Show up. I am amazed at how much success in both law and music is determined by who shows up. I may not be able to determine the outcome of a trial or whether an audience is going to love my band, but if I don't show up I can guarantee a loss. Failure is the outcome if you don't show up. There is also a big component of hanging out. You hire who you know whether you are looking for a lawyer or a guitar player. My goal is to be the lawyer you know or the guitarist standing there when you need a guitarist to jump in. 2. On time. I once lost a month of work at an outdoor summer series because a sax player was 15 minutes late. I had a criminal plea deal fall apart because my client couldn't get out of bed and to the courthouse by 8:00 am. 3. Be prepared. I've seen musicians show up without cables, strings, picks or music. I've seen lawyers show up to court without exhibits, EVIDENCE or proposed orders. You only get one chance at that audience and you only get one pass at the judge. Show up on time and be prepared to impress. It does me no good to be the lawyer you know if I am not prepared to take the case. On tour with Street Dogs, Johnny Rioux asked me if I could play the whistle part on a Dropkick Murphy's tune, Far Away Coast, on that night's gig. I sat down and prepared. It became a regular feature for the rest of the tour. (For the record, I (1) showed up (2)early and then (3) prepared). 4. Do your job. All too often folks get distracted. We focus on the band turmoil, the chaos of the tour, the offensive thing opposing counsel said about our client or whatever and forget to keep the focus on the job we are there to do. As I discussed in last week's post, "There are zombies out there just waiting for you to give them an opening." 5. Don't be an Ass. (with apologies to Wil Wheaton)This is hard for me. I am a lawyer after all. Remember that you want to be the lawyer or guitarist who shows up, on time, is prepared and can do the job. We work with people we get along with. One of the bands that we toured with and just loved was Old Man Markley. They do the first four steps well. They are great players and have a great show but they are also some of the easiest people to work with. Fun, funny and easygoing it is no wonder that they seem to always be on tour. This is my short lists of clichés which I hope you will accept as wisdom.