Discouraged by the empty promises made by the firms I was working for, by July 2002 I had lost two associate jobs in six months. It was then that I decided to never put my career in the hands of anyone else and began practicing as a solo corporate and securities lawyer. The way I figured, only as an independent lawyer could I build the practice that I wanted to build, work with the clients I wanted to work with, and decide when, where and how I wanted to work.

My dream was to build a law firm that was known as “the place” for entrepreneurs and high growth businesses to go for legal representation that solved their unique problems. In short, people just like me!

After starting my practice, for two years I spent most of my time doing two things: spinning my wheels trying to figure out what was going to bring clients through the door…and FAST; and trying to tame my utter panic that I was going to go broke before it happened. I was a mess!

Waking up at 3AM in a cold sweat is how my wife remembers me from that time. You see, I financed the start-up of my practice the usual way - with five low interest credit cards. I would wake up panic-stricken about my rapidly growing balances, and then spend hours hovering over my laptop in the wee hours of the morning obsessing about where the next piece of business would come from to make my minimum payments.

I hired coaches and consultants, and took seminars and courses to learn about marketing, practice development and financial management for law firms. This education cost me Tens of Thousands of Dollars, but put me on the path to success.