What Attorneys Can Learn from Daley's Decision to Retire
By now, you have probably heard the news about Chicago’s “Mayor for Life” and his announcement that he will not be running for a seventh term in office. You may love Mayor Richard M. Daley, hate him or have no opinion of him, but we can all learn something from the statements he made yesterday: “I’ve always believed that every person, especially public officials, must understand when it’s time to move on. For me, that time is now.”
For many attorneys and other professionals, we become accustomed to the status quo in our jobs and we often identify ourselves and our lives with what we’ve “always done” or what has become familiar to us. It is hard to think of someone more identified with his job and a particular role than Daley, but longtime political figures are not the only people who need to assess their lives, jobs and priorities on a regular basis. When we have done something for a long time, it can become easy to just continue and feel like we need to make it work, but sometimes we need to renovate our lives, practices, staff or whatever could be holding us back from other priorities. It is important to determine whether we are being healthy, doing what we really want to do, looking out for what’s best for our families and ourselves, and acting positively for our communities and the world.
For some attorneys, this could mean letting go of a troublesome client, delegating some of your work, retiring or setting up a part-time VLO to have more time with family, giving up the big firm 80-hour job for solo practice or a smaller, slower-paced firm, or making other career and lifestyle changes.
Can you think of something that you have “always done” that you could do without? What are some of those things and how can you change your life and improve your law practice for the best?
