This article is written by Ramanuj Mukherjee.
Enter like a needle, but exit like a sword.
I am not sure if I got the translation right, but there is an adage like that in Bengali, my mother tongue.
It’s actually a warning against wicked people – that they can enter your house as a needle which you do not even realise and exit as a sword which might kill you.
Well, we do not need more anxiety in life, so let’s take a different but useful lesson from the adage.
Do not be afraid to start small.
However small or humble your beginning may be, but it is no indication of where you will end up.
What are the indications at which we can then look at to predict your future?
Your ambitions.
Your courage.
Your intent.
Your actions.
Your investments.
Your dedication to excellence.
Your patience and perseverance.
How you give your best to even the smallest of tasks.
Those things scale.
As you grow, the impact of your intention, ambition, actions, investments and dedication multiplies.
So if you are starting small today, do not worry.
Do not refuse opportunities because they look like hard work, or because they do not fall within the script you were given to follow by your environment.
Remember, the best opportunities are seldom understood by the common masses. Popular choices are rarely the best. You have to develop a discerning eye for spotting opportunities where others see nothing interesting.
I was talking to around 200 lawyers and law students last night in a 3 hour workshop that lasted for 4 hours.
Somewhere in the middle, I was showing them a task from a freelancing website, where a German legal service provider is looking for a remote worker – someone who will work online and help them to close more business. They want someone with a good understanding of IP law, but to do a business development role. Responding to queries, closing clients. Shortlisting potential clients. That sort of thing.
They are paying around $30 per hour. Looking for proposals. They have around 40 hours work per month. That is quite a bit of money!
It is clear from the post that even Indians can apply for it since it is remote.
Btw, there are lots of online legal work you can do remotely, that was what the workshop was all about.
How many of you will like to apply? I asked the lawyers and law students who were present in the workshop.
This is just a glorified clerical job – said one of the attendees.
I must have rolled my eyes.
Lots of litigators say that about law firm jobs too!
Our ego is our worst enemy.
Just think for a moment – if you want to be an IP lawyer, and you want to work abroad, is this not a golden opportunity?
By doing this job, will you not learn a lot about the German IP Law market? Will you not get to interact and network with so many clients of that service provider? Will you not get an opportunity to make deep connections with senior people in that company?
Will that not set you up for more and better opportunities next?
When you look at a seed, can you imagine the tree it can grow into if you plant it and water it?
When you look at a baby, can you imagine the amazing, complex grown up human being it will become one day?
You need to, if you want an outstanding career. You need to see possibilities and you need to be able to visualise how that possibility may materialise. Without that ability to imagine, we cannot go very far.
If you don’t get enough opportunities in a job, if your best laid plans do not work, you can always leave that job and find another.
But this refusal to see opportunities outside what we have come to think of as a path to success is how people fail to take advantage of golden opportunities – because it looks like work, risk and uncertainty.
Work, risk and uncertainty cannot be avoided. As a wise man once said, risk hay toh ishq hay.
What do you want? Should people come and give you opportunities on a silver platter while you are sitting on your ivory tower, leisurely surveying your kingdom?
We have to hustle. We have to risk failure. We have to be willing to hear 10 nos so we can get to that 1 yes we need.
And great adventures begin with you spotting opportunities in unlikely places.
Where you see obstacles, and jobs beneath your expectations, I see amazing opportunities.
I will convert that opportunity into a plank for my next step and launch myself into the next orbit while you fret about whether you are too good to do this or that.
And what is wrong with business development or sales? As a lawyer, if you become good at business development, your career is sorted! A whole lot of lawyers get stuck in mid level positions because they cannot do business development, and without that skill you just cannot grow beyond a point in a law firm.
Lawyers who are good at business development are rich.
But you have to start somewhere!
This Diwali, resolve to kill your ego, and look for opportunities on the ground while your peers are sitting on their ivory towers.
Where can you take the risk? Where can you embrace uncertainty? Where can you find opportunities where others hesitate?
In 45 more days, 2020 will be over. We will welcome a new year and look back at how well we did in 2020.
Six weeks are left.
This was admittedly a hard year for each one of us, but in every hardship hides opportunities. What is our opportunity here?
Maybe you learned how to keep growing even in a difficult market.
Maybe you learned to swim upstream.
Maybe you finally let go of a dead end job or got fired and you have moved closer to your destiny ever since.
After all, every rejection is only the universe redirecting you to your true calling.
Maybe you learned to keep growing even as you tighten your belts just like we did at #lawsikho. We became leaner, more agile, and created value where there was none.
Difficult times force us to reckon with our truth and work on our weaknesses.
Six weeks is enough time to do something to make yourself proud, so you can look back at 2020 and feel optimism going into a new year.
Make the best of the last 6 weeks of 2020. All the best!
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Diploma in Advanced Contract Drafting, Negotiation and Dispute Resolution
Diploma in English Communication for Lawyers – oratory, writing, listening and accuracy
Diploma in Labour, Employment and Industrial Laws (including POSH) for HR Managers
Certificate Course in Competition Law, Practice And Enforcement
Certificate Course in Introduction to Legal Drafting: Contracts, Petitions, Opinions & Articles
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