It was a beautiful day today. So I went fishing with my step-daughter, (let’s call her Diva), father-in-law (let’s call him The Captain) and brother-in-law. When we arrived at The Captain’s favorite fishing spot on the shore, the current was a lot stronger than expected. Since I’m not much of a fisherman – downright pathetic, to be honest – I deferred to The Captain’s experience. He privately told me that we weren’t likely to catch anything today because the current was too strong and moving too fast. But we were determined to make the best of it and the whole point was to get the kids out of the house for a little while. We didn’t catch anything other than a couple of mosquito bites, yet the four of us had a great time just being together.
The trip and The Captain’s words got me thinking. As I already said, I’m a terrible fisherman. And as a general rule I hate baiting the hooks with live bait. Maybe it’s some sort of residual trauma from a past life experience as a shrimp. Diva, on the other hand, took to it like a natural – that is, once she got over the way the bait shrimp squirmed and wiggled in her hands. She said that it wasn’t so bad once she knew what to expect from the shrimp and the way it reacted to her. Watching Diva reminded me of myself during the first few days after I opened my practice: scared and unsure until I finally took a deep breath, closed my eyes and took the plunge.
New client interviews, deciding whether or not to take a particular case, and negotiating with attorneys only slightly more experienced than me were all nerve wracking experiences. Truthfully, to the new solo attorney anything outside of that comfort zone of previous experience can be scary. But as Diva showed me, it’s not so bad once you get used to it. And the only way to get used to it is to just stick your hand in the bait bucket and grab the shrimp by the horns – prawns. You get the idea.
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